Mithar Keep & Frescot House IV: Magic babble lies within

[Shadowcaller]

The walls stand at a daunting twenty five feet high, cast from seamless black granite that glitters faintly under the morning sun. These very walls surround an eighty foot wide courtyard on four sides, forming a square of safety over the inhabitants. At each of the five corners sits a squat tower, ten feet higher than the walls it is connected to, from which defenders can protect the flanks of the nearest two towers in a near perfect net of safety. Surmounting the towers are gleaming black adamantine spikes, crafted from the Mithar treasure hoard and used to fly flags bearing the crests of the Therishein and Mithar Houses.

Immediately as you enter through the gates you can see two square, flat-topped granite outbuildings flanking either side of the short road leading up to the keep proper. The right most building holds the forge, where Harnel himself works tirelessly to turn out high quality adamantine arms and armor. The left is his armory, stocked high with the fruits of his labor.

The keep itself retains the outer wall's Square setup, four sides of glittering stone reaching almost fifty five feet in height. It is capped by a flat roof that acts as a flight deck for Harnel to take off from and land on. To this end imposing black spikes have been installed to act as perches, so that he and his children will have no trouble landing in extreme weather.

The Floors:

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In the first apex of the Tower walls from the gate there is a door set deep into the stone. Beyond this door is the ground floor, more specifically the entrance hall where Harnel greets his guests. The room is oddly shaped, a sort of wedge that gets wider towards the exterior walls. Towards the center it converges into three doors, one leading off to the kitchen on the right, and another to the living room on the left. The one in the center leads up a spiral staircase to the next floor, and the ones after that eventually. Also on the first floor is a washroom and Harnel's personal study. All of the rooms are arrayed around the central staircase in the unique wedge shaped pattern.

The second floor is a bit more esoteric, holding only three rooms. On the apex facing the gate is a small space for storing alchemical ingredients and curative potions. The recreational room take up a double sized wedge on the west side, while the east is a room for the safe practice of rituals and other potentially catastrophic magic. Cessie have claimed this room as her laboratory and reinforced it with her own enchantments, making it impossible to enter without her key.

The third is where the family makes its home, including a double sized master bedroom and two guest rooms, one already set aside for the little one on the way. Another bathroom can also be found here, to eliminate the inconvenience of running down two flights of stairs in the middle of the night.

The fourth and final floor was left open and converted into a massive library as Harnel's gift to his lovely Cessie. A place so well stocked with lore, both arcane and mundane, that I'm certain no one could possibly read every tome amongst its shelves. From here the stairs only lead upward to the Aerie, which has been equipped with guard-rails and no slip coatings to ensure that no one takes a nasty tumble to their doom while enjoying the pleasant view.

Because honestly, who builds a tower with roof access and then doesn't install guard-rails? Incompetent contractors, that's who.

Courtyard:

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The area between the walls and the tower itself where a number of buildings are constructed.

Forge: Here Harnel craft weapons and armor using the adamatite most of the keep is made of.

Armory: This building is filled with the masterwork weapons Harnel have made. It's normally locked to outsiders however.

Green House: Cessie have recently ordered the construction of this building which contains the many plants she have collected around the keep. Especially notable are the fey apple-trees who are shaped just like nymphs and the large rose seeds the sorceress is keeping in stock.

Individuals Living In The Keep:

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Cessie Mithar: Noblewoman and mage. Human, with black hair and blue eyes. Harnel is her husband.

Harnel Mithar: Nobleman, though he rarely seems the type. A Half-red dragon/human, he's the man of the house, but is sometimes a bit daft.

Cora and Bastion Mithar: About a year old, these two are twins, and the children of Harnel and Cessie

Kirin: Catgirl and maid, she looks unhealthily thin because of her metabolism and eats enormous amounts of food.

Xavier: Xavier is a pixie who often takes on an almost human shape and size. He is staying at the Keep for the near future, though not permanently. He is primarily acting as a research assistant to Cessie in her studies. In exchange for his room and board, Xavier also helps out with household chores when he can.

Notes:

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Other things of note include the extensive tunnel complex the land was built on, now fully integrated into the design to allow quick access to all of the buildings on sight without exposing the people inside to an enemy siege. These tunnels also join to a rather well built cellar/bomb shelter and Harnel's underground hoard of adamantine bars. An interesting fact: All the metal fixings, including faucets, doorknobs and hinges, were made from this very stash.

The keep is overlooking the city of Inside, on a cliff above. Built into the cliff are natural caverns. Though most have been collapsed, a few, the only entrances remaining leading to the towers themselves. This is where Harnel stores his treasure horde, including the massive stockpile of adamantine.

Keep in mind, the whole place, like so many other locations in the nexus, is dimension locked and warded against scrying.

Thread Rules:

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This is the cut standard here. Don't destroy the keep, don't godmode, etc. etc. generally, if you need to ask about something, ask. It may end up makking things acceptable rather than if you had simply dropped the situation on us.

As this is a home thread, We aren't worried about things getting a little intense in scenes between characters. Nothing that would offend a moderator, but don't complain if a scene gets a little sexy. That's part of what this is here for.

Old Threads:

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Mithar Keep
Mithar Keep II: Electric Boobaloo
Mithar Keep III: Girls gone Modest

[Ionbound]

[Front Gate]

The woman smiles when Harnel shows up and says, "Good afternon, sir. Can I interest in you in anything for your lucky lady?" as she opens the briefcase, revealing several neatly folded sets of women's lingerie in various different colors; Red, black, light blue, indigo, and purple, among others.

[Halae]

[Front Gate]

Harnel frowns at the saleswoman. Sure, Cessie had several things she liked to wear for him, but she'd gotten all of them. He wasn't about to do this.

"Not interested." He begins to close the gate. if she's going to make a sales pitch, it'll need to be quick!

[Ionbound]

[Front Gate]

The saleswoman frowns and says, "Are you sure, sir? These have special qualities. They will never, ever not fit your special someone perfectly."

[Halae]

[The Front Gate]

"Be that as it may, we've got more than enough of that type of item." He says. And then the gate will shut. GG, saleswoman. You may need a different tactic.

[Shadowcaller]

[Front Entrance]

Geneva looks up at the animates statue and makes that clicking sound with her beak.

"The simplest explanation is 'because of Libra'," she replies. "I'll leave it at that for now. May I come in please? I was hoping to be able to talk with Cessie again. And maybe meet the rest of her family?"

Meeting the family of your friends is always a wonderful bonding experience.

You can play Risk together and just as quickly break those bonds!

Of course...

There's also the dice matter.

Being half-way between a hippogriff and... whatever she was turning into felt strange. Like she was on the edge of a cliff and awkwardly unable to take off.

[Front Entrance]

"Why?" Garn inquires standing with his huge arms on the ground to make himself as wide as possible. As if he were afraid Geneva was going to attempt to slip past him.

[Rebonack]

[Front Entrance]

"What do you mean, why? I just told you why. Cessie is my friend. She wanted me to come back when I found some leads on the bridge project, and I have. I want to talk to my friend and get to know her family. These are all normal things that friends do with each other."

You know.

Chatting.

Eating snacks.

Playing board games.

Planning to harness reality shattering magics and bridge the infinite void between realities.

Normal stuff like that.

Geneva thinks that Garn could use some lessons in being sociable.

[Ionbound]

[The Front Gate]

"Be that as it may, we've got more than enough of that type of item." He says. And then the gate will shut. GG, saleswoman. You may need a different tactic.

The saleswoman's frown deepens as the gate shuts, but she heads out, taking the shooting-down in stride.

[Lost_Deep]

Kitchen==> Kirin's Room

Well, Kirin is lucky, someone has left a small piece of clothing on the windowsill at closer inspection. Almost as if it was left there intentionally...

Kirin sighs, and finds some tweezers to pick up the clothing carefully.

[Gullara]

[Kirin's Room]

"Oh, you found something already." Xavier comments as he comes closer to get a better look. "Ah ha, a scrap of clothing it looks like. Perhaps this can help us."

[Terumitsu]

[A Particular Practitioner's Pad]

"Really? Well, if you're sure I won't have any problems with it. If you even have experience with this you're much more ideal than my the last two subjects. I'd like to ask you to be contained within the laboratory however, at least until I can discern that you're safe while subjected to the formula. So far everyone subjected to it has acted rather uncontrollably which in combination with the power it grants them could potentially be dangerous." Cessie replies.

Well that sounded perfectly fair. Experience aside, it was still unknown how it would ultimately affect her and Riss could hardly fault someone being intelligently cautious. "I have no problems with that kind of arrangement." she said. "I assume you probably have something set up to where it's easier to detect changes rather than needing to do it on the fly, anyway?" she added with a tone that attempted to be helpful.

There was just one last part left and, despite herself, she had to make certain she didn't sound too terribly eager despite her own apprehension. Curiosity drove one to do some interesting things, it seemed.. "In any case, I can be ready just as soon as you are on that matter." she said, leaving it up to the sorceress' whim on when that would be... As was proper, at any rate, given that she was already the 'lead researcher' of this small group among other things.

[Shadowcaller]

[Front Entrance]

"What do you mean, why? I just told you why. Cessie is my friend. She wanted me to come back when I found some leads on the bridge project, and I have. I want to talk to my friend and get to know her family. These are all normal things that friends do with each other."

You know.

Chatting.

Eating snacks.

Playing board games.

Planning to harness reality shattering magics and bridge the infinite void between realities.

Normal stuff like that.

Geneva thinks that Garn could use some lessons in being sociable.

Well that sounded perfectly fair. Experience aside, it was still unknown how it would ultimately affect her and Riss could hardly fault someone being intelligently cautious. "I have no problems with that kind of arrangement." she said. "I assume you probably have something set up to where it's easier to detect changes rather than needing to do it on the fly, anyway?" she added with a tone that attempted to be helpful.

There was just one last part left and, despite herself, she had to make certain she didn't sound too terribly eager despite her own apprehension. Curiosity drove one to do some interesting things, it seemed.. "In any case, I can be ready just as soon as you are on that matter." she said, leaving it up to the sorceress' whim on when that would be... As was proper, at any rate, given that she was already the 'lead researcher' of this small group among other things.

[Front Entrance]

The gargoyle snorts but doesn't comment. He had his own ideas why Geneva was there, she was gonna spread her strangeness all over the place like all other visitors that came here and cause chaos. But he still gestures for Geneva to follow him. He will lead her inside the keep though no one else is coming to greet her, maybe Cessie is busy?

[A Particular Practitioner's Pad]

"I can measure the overall level of aether thanks to neverath, but I can't actually go any more specific than that since as far as I know, there isn't any equipment." Cessie supposed it would be easier to see if Riss stripped naked, but she certainly wasn't going to ask that! Nor would she ever allow it. Craziness!
"But if you're feeling ready I can just administrate the dose." The sorceress goes to collect a small vial from one of the locked cupboards in the laboratory and hands it to Riss. "Just stand in the middle of that drawn circle on the floor there and drink this. The dose is the same as I gave my husband and Kirin so the results should be the same."

[Rebonack]

[Into the Keep!]

Geneva is about to head inside when a rather odd sound catches her attention. A rattling sound, like plastic against plastic. It's shortly followed by the distinctive noise of a die bouncing off stone, followed by something small and white shooting up one of Geneva's nostrils.

The hippogriff gives a squawk of alarm and begins flailing! Which is a pretty reasonable thing to do, considering that the object that just flew up her nose was MUCH larger than her nostrils are. One would think that this would be uncomfortable, but somehow it wasn't.

And then?

The die begins to slowly dissolve inside her nose.

Weird.

Turns out snorting a die of wonder is less jarring than swallowing one, that results in an even, gentle flow of new chaos magic rather than a sudden spike ripping through her body. And speaking of body, Geneva's tail begins to lengthen and thicken. Previously she sported a lion's tail ending in a fan of feathers. But now? Now the tail is growing increasingly draconic by the moment. The fur grows longer and thicker on the top, a deep cobalt grey. Below draconic scoot scales begin taking shape, onyx black as her horns. And like her horns etched with gold. Though perhaps most striking is the metallic hexagonal trapezohedron lattice at the end of her tail. The tail-cap is an elongated, six-faced mesh of gold enshrouding a night-sky black mass coiling about a point of purple radiance. A tiny star held captive within a gilded cage. As Geneva walks a faint trail of black and swirling purple hues lingers behind her tail like a nebula in microcosm.

She can feel her pool of chaos magic swelling within her, pushing beyond boundaries and opening her eyes to possibilities she hadn't ever dreamed of considering. What she doesn't feel is her horn nub growing a little longer.

So enraptured by the new sight and feeling that the dracohippodicegriff isn't really watching where she's going and will likely run beak-first into the whatever object (or person) she encounters.

[Terumitsu]

[A Particular Practitioner's Pad]

Riss examined the vial, shaking it gently as she observed how it changed the substance inside. While Cessie hadn't said how to consume the substance, conventional knowledge seemed to suggest that ingestion was probably the easiest method. Just to make certain that the effects would be contained here, though, she took a few minutes to set her other forms on physical standby which left her feeling strangely cloistered. It wasn't exactly uncomfortable but she found herself feeling disinclined to going long periods like this. At least she could cover for the time it took by taking a few ancilary observations before tilting the vial back and downing the contents.

What Cessie would probably first notice was the gentle rush of air like an anemic cyclone whirling about the lab in perfect time with a slow exhalation from the muse; tousling hair and smelling faintly of mint before turning to a mixture of cinnamon and chai. Any questions the sorceress might have had about the muse being of fey lineage would be confirmed simply from the sheer vibrancy she exuded though outwardly she had hardly done more than slightly shift her weight and lightly begin tapping her heel.

For Riss, however, it felt good. Really good. No, that wasn't quite it. It wasn't that it was necessarily pleasure although she could feel that effect of the aether distillation. It felt Right. It was like having walked a lifetime in shackles only for them to suddenly disappear... No it was more like solving for that last troublesome variable if it were a sensory exercise... Or.. Maybe it was like that first breath of air recycled not by machines or chemical treatment processes but the strange, verdant vegetation she had encountered here . Riss couldn't quite make up her mind on the matter but soon discarded the line of thought as she crouched down and ran her fingers along the strange stone that made up the floor. It didn't feel... No, feel was the wrong word. It didn't sound quite right somehow. It wasn't something due to manufacture but more like some inherent property that made it decisively discordant.. Though, upon noting that opened her awareness to the other sounds that weren't... Tuned. It was as if the room were an instrument that had been tuned by an amateur. Certainly an amateur who was aware of the basics but untutored... But could I really expect any more from a genus homo?

The noise brought a grimace to her lips but one noise in particular caught her attention and melded with an earlier observation she had made about her host... Which is a bit of an ironic term if what I suspect turns out to be correct. What came next, however, might well throw Cessie off balance as the sound was entrancing in the sort of way that could lure ships to grind themselves on crags and sink. Captivating to the point where one might willingly be held thrall simply to hear more. So it might be a moment before the sorceress' brain realized that Riss had simply said "Take one half-step to your right and turn ten degrees in the same direction before saying 'ah.'"

[Shadowcaller]

[A Particular Practitioner's Pad]

Before the sorceress had realized what she was doing, she had done just that. "Ah..." She blinks and makes a quick note of this particular phenomena and turns back to her subject. "Riss, try to control yourself, the effect is quite potent but we have to try to keep to the protocol. Try to tell me what you feel, what you want to do." This was already reminding her about how things had gone with Harnel.

[Into the Keep!]

Garn turns to look as Geneva squeaks and immediately sees that he was right! This person was already starting to act weird and cause transformations, just like every other person that visited the keep these days! "Grah! You're doing weird things now!" The gargoyle calls after her, why were they even letting in these kind of people? All they brought was just chaos.

[Rebonack]

[Into the Keep]

"I am not doing weird things!" Geneva objects. "A random magical die flew up my nose and did weird things to me. I have no intention of doing weird things. I just want to talk with Cessie and meet her family and have a normal pleasant afternoon."

But what are the chances of that happening?

Probably not very good.

[Shadowcaller]

[Into the Keep]

Garn snorts loudly, not believe a word of her excuses. But his master had already recognized Geneva so he could sadly not simply throw her out of the keep no matter how weird she acted. "Not dangerous then?" He still asks.

[Rebonack]

[Into the Keep]

"Of course it isn't dangerous!" Geneva replies indignantly.

A beat.

"Well... I'm assuming it isn't dangerous, at least."

She's been wrong before...

"But I might be wrong? I mean... so long as someone doesn't try sticking their arm in there everything should be fine?"

Sticking one's arm into a cauldron of raw chaos magic probably isn't very healthy. But then again, sticking one's arm into a cauldron of raw arcane (or any other) magic isn't too healthy either.

"And I know how to prevent myself from being rolled, so I'm sure I can stop any random chaos magic events from happening."

[Lost_Deep]

[Kirin's Room]

"Oh, you found something already." Xavier comments as he comes closer to get a better look. "Ah ha, a scrap of clothing it looks like. Perhaps this can help us."

"No writing, no blood, no easily visible traces... this doesn't seem very helpful. And with magic, there's a good chance that whatever lost this piece is already fixed." she goes about finding a box or baggie to put it in. "Better than nothing, but we don't exactly have a crime lab."

[Shadowcaller]

[Into the Keep]

Random chaos magic?!

"Rolled? You... you be like one of those little things!" The gargoyle exclaims angrily. "You can't do that in here!" He slowly approaches Geneva, seemingly intended to force her outside with his size and bulk.

[Rebonack]

[Into the Keep]

Geneva backs up a few steps. She's pretty big herself at nearly ten feet long and 800 pounds, but a solid stone animated statue still out-weighs her a lots.

"I just said I wasn't going to roll in here!" she objects. And to be fair, she did just say that she wasn't going to be letting herself get rolled. "I promise I won't let anyone roll me. If they try I'll just suppress the chaos magic so nothing happens. I'm really good at that now! I've had lots of practice!"

It's true.

She has had quite a bit of practice messing with her magic Outside. It's gotten to the point that she has some pretty impressive control over it. Or, at least she has pretty impressive control when she's controlling it as opposed to allowing herself to be rolled and causing random chaos events. But even then, she's figured out that she can let someone give her Dice a spin and prevent a number from popping up. That trick is absolutely invaluable when she's navigating large crowds and people are jostling into her.

Otherwise it would just take one stray elbow to cause some chaos.

And that would be terrible.

[Shadowcaller]

[Into the Keep]

Garn lifts his claw and shakes them in frustration, what was this madperson talking about?! Why was she a little chaos thing?! "Why are you a chaos thing?!" The gargoyle demands as he continues towards Geneva.

[Rebonack]

[Into the Keep]

This is annoying.

Frustrating.

Agitating.

Totally, absurdly ridiculous.

Geneva didn't ask to be like this.

She didn't want to be like this.

And apparently, despite the best efforts of her friends, she was stuck like this.

"Because Libra did this to me!" she shouts back at the gargoyle. "If I hadn't ever met her I would have still been normal!"

[Shadowcaller]

[Into the Keep]

Garn looks to be about to reply to that when Geneva can hear someone behind her. "What's going on here? Who is this?" If the hippogriff turns she will see a tall human man dressed in a dark blue robe approaching. He has raven black hair, blue eyes and a very lean build. She might note these similarities to Cessie.

"Chaos creature trying to enter the keep." The gargoyle claims, pointing at Geneva. Apparently recognizing, and trusting the man no less.

"Really now? I'd like to hear your version though." The human turns his gaze to Geneva.

[Gullara]

"No writing, no blood, no easily visible traces... this doesn't seem very helpful. And with magic, there's a good chance that whatever lost this piece is already fixed." she goes about finding a box or baggie to put it in. "Better than nothing, but we don't exactly have a crime lab."

[Kirin's Room]

"Oh my, Kirin. You are far too pessimistic. We have something to start with, and that's not insignificant." Xavier says in an upbeat sort of way. "A crime lab we may not have, but a library is just as good as far as I'm concerned. Let's go there now and see if there's some spell that might help us."

[Rebonack]

[Into the Keep]

Oh good, someone else!

Hopefully someone who will allow Geneva to rationally explain what's going on without trying to boot her out of the tower.

"My name is Geneva, I'm a friend of Cessie's and I wanted to stop by to speak with her, both to take up her offer to meet the rest of her family and continue discussing my findings on our mutual research project regarding the creation of stable bridges between the Nexus and other adjoining universes."

Geneva is hoping this guy will know what she's talking about instead of getting hung up on the whole chaos creature thing.

"When we were investigating the bridge back to her home world I was confronted by a creature called Libra and... well..." Geneva gestures back at herself with a wing. "Things got really weird. I've been lead to believe that this is a thing that Libra does on a regular basis."

Someone should really do something about that.

But how?

[Lost_Deep]

Kirin's Room

"True, true. I'm not used to thinking about magic detectiving. Let me see if..." Kirin unlatches the window, and slips out of it, to examine the wall under the window for any other clues.

[Shadowcaller]

[Into the Keep]

"I know that name." The man admits stoically. His voice or expression betraying no emotions regarding Libra. "My sister has already briefed me about it's... irregularities. But you're in luck as I happen to be your friends brother. The closest family you can come." He smiles ever so slightly. "I am Arik Mithar, Cessie's older brother." His gaze shifts to Garn. "So you can be at ease Garn, I'm sure I can handle whatever mischief Libra has caused here."

The gargoyle glares at Geneva but slowly nods and retreats back to allow Geneva to pass.

[Kirin's Room]

There are a number of footprints on the windowsill from dirty boots. So I guess she now knows the thieves shoe size?

[Gullara]

[Kirin's Room]

"Oh." Xavier says with surprise. He moves over to the window and sticks his head out behind her. "Do you see anything?"

[Rebonack]

[Into the Keep!]

Geneva waves in as friendly of a fashion as she can to the departing guardian. There's some hope that she might be able to win him over if she's persistently kind and doesn't cause any trouble.

That hope might be false, but it isn't going to stop her from trying.

"Irregularities is certainly one way to describe what she does," Geneva grouses, glancing back at the golden Dice in her haunches. "It's nice to meet you, Arik Mithar."

That's a pretty standard greeting, right there.

But still not much of one.

Come on, Geneva, small talk! Or at least strike up an interesting conversation.

"I don't suppose you have any familiarity with the bridge that connects your home world to the Nexus?"