France: Waltz of Dust

[The_Werebear]

Brother Patrice

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It didn't want to roll my bluff check, so, repost


bluff - (1d20+12)[26]

[Human Paragon 3]

At the sound of Patrice's musings, a man across the room stops and looks around as if looking for a friend. The fancy soon passes, and he turns back around to attend to his business, but not before Guillarme recognizes his face.

Father Jean-Paul de Noailles is sitting at a table along with a few other men of good breeding. At a glance, they appear engaged in a spirited conversation.

[Mikeavelli]

Dr. Klein

Dr. Klein takes a moment to size up the old warhorse, something about the old man...

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An old War hero huh? A decent Knowledge: History check might mean he's heard something about this guy (1d20+8)[18]

[Human Paragon 3]

Dr. T. Klein:

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Not sure if history applies, but I guess it's close enough. An 18 will let you know that you are looking at General Dupont, a man of some renown for his tenacity, and no small degree of character and forthrightness.

[Toliudar]

Guillaume

Bowing his head to speak softly with Brother Patrice, Guillaume murmurs.

Nice work. That's Pere de Noailles over there, over my left shoulder, and I believe he caught some of what you just said. Shall we press the advantage?

Finding some wine, Guillaume waits for Patrice and then moves respectfully but directly over to the circle of men discussing things with Father de Noailles. He smiles and keeps his mouth shut at first, guaging the tenor of the conversation before jumping in.

[Human Paragon 3]

Heaven is a metaphore for rejoining with God! You can't tell me you clutch to that simplistic fantasy of puffy clouds and angels playing harps? The speaker is younger than he appears- time has not been kind to him and he is pre-maturely bald.

A metaphore? That's borderline heretical, Louis. Heaven is a place as real as any, and so is hell, says another young man, long hair tied back. They both appear to be religious students, or recent graduates from the seminary.

Hell is the absence of God and heaven is the union with God. If heaven is a real place, then where is it?

Heaven MUST be a real place, Jean-Paul interjects. And hell. Or do you think the demons that our wizards summon are conjured out of thin air?

They may well be. What proof do you have of the contrary?

[Mikeavelli]

Dr. Klein

Upon recognizing the man, Dr. Klein steps right up to the fray, butting in between the General at the woman who seems to have impugned his honor. With no easy way of breaking into the conversation presented to him, he simply ignores the arguement at hand and introduces himself, "Excuse me, Sir, Are you General Dupont, famous even so far as Munich? I am Doctor Klein, a professor at the University there, and your name comes up in discussions of many of France's military successes. If you have the time, I would like to speak with you about them?"

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You work with what you've got. Now all I've got to do is find a way to make Knowledge: Geography worthwhile.

But for right now, I guess a diplomacy roll would be in order? Bring on the pain, (1d20-1)[9]

[Lepre_Khan]

Riq Kelborn

Riq has never put much stock in propriety and so, thanking the young man with the card tricks, scouts around and heads upstairs.

Once there, he looks around for the lady; hoping she's not in her chambers.

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Spot (d20)[16]
Knowledge Nobility/Royalty (d20+5)[10]

Assuming he doesn't see her, he spends time looking at the paintings and statues and such.

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Knowledge Nobility/Royalty to see who he recognizes (d20+5)[16]

[The_Werebear]

Brother Patrice

Heaven is a metaphore for rejoining with God! You can't tell me you clutch to that simplistic fantasy of puffy clouds and angels playing harps? The speaker is younger than he appears- time has not been kind to him and he is pre-maturely bald.

A metaphore? That's borderline heretical, Louis. Heaven is a place as real as any, and so is hell, says another young man, long hair tied back. They both appear to be religious students, or recent graduates from the seminary.

Hell is the absence of God and heaven is the union with God. If heaven is a real place, then where is it?

Heaven MUST be a real place, Jean-Paul interjects. And hell. Or do you think the demons that our wizards summon are conjured out of thin air?

They may well be. What proof do you have of the contrary?

Patrice walks up to the table, affecting to look slightly nervous at approaching and entering the conversation.

But sir, if you can summon a quasi living being with memories and personality differing from others, you must admit it is a separate creature, not a part of a whole. If Heaven and Hell were merely conglomerates, wouldn't every summoned creature have the same memory and very similar personalities? We know that is not the case. Demons range from scheming and conniving to threatened and brutal within the same class, much less within the group of hellions as a whole.

Furthermore, we do know what happens when one summons part of a conglomerate. Elementals are composed of the pure essence of something. Heaven and Hell are pure good and evil, respectively. If they were conglomorates, we wouldn't get fully formed angels and demons, but good and evil elementals. They are unique as we are. Like everyone, peasant and noble, man or woman, they all suffer from different sins.

Being a summoner of such beings, Patrice has a very firm opinion about such subjects. He works hard to dovetail his knowledge of spirits and his opinions on universal function into a leadup to his bluff about the problems with fighting a this war.

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I can do a bluff check if you want, but I haven't actually started acting beyond my previous check

[Human Paragon 3]

Klein:

I'm Dupont, yes, says the General, but I doubt you'd find the exploits of this old timer interesting. War is bloody brutal boring when it's not just brutal.
He looks over the doctor appraisingly.

But you have me at a dissadvantage. You are...?

Riq:

You take your leave and creep up the stairs to the second floor where DeChamps' appartment is. Of course you don't know which room it is, so investigation is in order. You are looking at a long hallway with rows of closed doors on either side. Objects d'art decorate the hallway, which is illuminated by soft candle light. You are alone in the hallways.

Patrice:

The balding student looks up at you with a frown.

It could all be a trick- the Devil misleads and hides the truth. What do you know about it anyway?

Noailles speaks up.

Manners, Louis! This gentlemen is obviously learned in the ways of philosophies and magics. Please, have a seat. I'm not sure I fully grasp what you mean by "conglomorate."

[The_Werebear]

Patrice

By conglomorate, I mean something along what he said. He injects large amounts of enthusiasm into his voice, imitating the eager students he has seen at universities across Europe. You would have a pure merger with God. If what this distinguished sir was saying was true, then you would have, upon death, each soul becoming another chunk of God, so to say. The end result being Heaven, God, Jesus, and every good Soul being a single being in the form of the Holy Ghost. An angel summoning would thus give you an elemental of pure good. So, this can't be strictly true.

Oh by every spirit in the otherworld, Guillaume, get in here and interrupt me before they realize I am nearly quoting from Aquinas' Summa contra Gentiles

[Toliudar]

Guillaume

The fool! Couldn't he have tarted Aquinas up just a little?

Guillaume slides easily into a vacated chair, and leans into the conversation.

For me, the real difficulty with the notion of a more, ah, metaphorical sense of heaven and hell, that is, as Louis said, that hell is merely the absence of God, is that it presupposes the prospect that there is a part of creation from which God is, in fact, absent.

I would prefer to suggest that there is a part of His creation from which he shields his glory to a greater or lesser degree, and that this, shall we say, damping down creates the conditions of Hell. And, of course, to a lesser extent, Earth. That part of creation in which there is an unfiltered exposure to God necessarily becomes Heaven.

Guillaume glances up at Patrice, smiling and encouraging him to sit as well.

Well, you're plagiarizing as badly as Patrice, boy, but at least Dionysius the Areopagite isn't in quite as many of the seminary libraries.

[The_Werebear]

Patrice

The priest accepts a chair and pulls it up to the table, masking gratefulness at being rescued with gratefulness at getting a steat. Of course, that theory would work with both ideas, metaphorical plane and physical plane. What do you think, Father...Noailles, right sir?

[Human Paragon 3]

Quite right, he nods. Pleased to make your acquaintances. Personally, I think it's all a load of hogwash, and we won't really know until we get there. Ha ha!

He takes a drink.


It is a quandary though. If God is everywhere and Hell is the absence of God, maybe there is no Hell at all? Or maybe we're there already.

Noailles' speech is obviously upsetting his students a little. The long haired one clears his throat.

You're beginning to sound like Jean Jacques Rousseau, Father, he supplies weakly.

[Lepre_Khan]

Riq Kelborn

Shrugging, Riq begins to walk down the hallway looking and listening for any clues. Failing that, he knocks on a door and hopes for the best.

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Listen (d20)[15]
Spot (d20)[9]
Search (if it applies) (d20+2)[15]

[Toliudar]

Guillaume

Brother Guillaume, the juices of a good argument flowing now.

A pleasure to meet you as well, Father. I've admired your writings.

He turns to the long-haired young man.

That over-puffed romanticist? You do Father de Noailles considerable wrong, sir! His Julie may be a masterwork, but I found that Discourse on the Arts and Sciences so completely disregarded the interplay of natural and magical forces as to be intentionally obtuse.

Even my friend's defense of a corporeal framework for our understanding of the planes seems to retain an interesting quandary. If even heaven and hell are pure states of good and evil, then it follows that every angel is unquestioningly good, all demons mechanistically evil. Yet we have accounts of fallen angels, redeemed fiends, as both warnings against hubris and signs of hope.

This clearly suggests that even they, in the immortal words of our former countryman, Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum.

Having lapsed into Latin, he continues on in the language for a pace.

But if angels and devils are mixed creatures, full of doubt and capable of free will, what does this say of the places they inhabit?

He leans back, taking a deep pull on his goblet.

[Altharis]

Swaggering through the crowd in the general direction of a dueling hall or piste, Jacques kept a keen eye out for the Capitaine.

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Various checks:

Knowledge: Nobility and Royalty- (1d20+3)[4]
Spot- (1d20)[16]
Listen (In case anybody's mentioning his name)- (1d20)[1]

In case he hears nor see no mention of the capitaine, he'll ask around.

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Various checks:

Diplomacy- (1d20+12)[27]

[Human Paragon 3]

Riq:
You hear the laughter of mixed company from behind one of the doors. The others seem relatively quiet. You also hear the muffled tones of an argument coming from further down the hall.

Priests:
The long-haired priest who has yet to introduce himself inerjects, Again, it sounds as if you are saying that angels and devils are no different than you and I, free willed beings that live on planes with no significant differance from the Prime. This is not backed up by the texts. Lucifer and his demons were once angels, yes- but it is something in their nature that made them fall, not simply a bad decision or lapse in judgement. Just as Men are touched with original sin, all such creatures have good or evil at their core. After all, they were all made by God just so.

Jacques:
You spy a friend who seems to remember seeing St. Pierre playing billiards earlier. Out the main doors and through the archway, down the hall and the second door on the left. You follow the directions and come to the billiards room where a group of five play the game and smoke expensive tobacco brought from the Americas. One matches the description of St. Pierre. The others all appear to be millitary men as well, judging by the way they carry themselves and their dress uniforms. Also in the room is a young boy, probably of no more than 14, who watches the game, looking admiringly at St. Pierre.

[Toliudar]

Guillaume

He is on familar ground again. Guillaume remembered a pleasant enough evening at Troyes spent parsing the source of the fall of Lucifer. The conversation had drawn half a dozen dusty tomes down from back shelves, and consumed in it four bottles of a pleasant enough merlot.

Sir, you clearly know your ante-scripture writers, but in the words of the pagan Hera****is, "All life is change." Our perceptions of these creatures have been shaped by centuries more research and contact.

Besides, the scriptures are not entirely clear on the source of Lucifer's fall from grace - because placing the flaw in his very character means that God created all the evil in our world as well as all the good, because God is of course infallible. Whereas if God merely created the potential for choice, then ultimately it charges each of us with the duty to take action. To make choices that support good, instead of passively fleeing evil.

He glances over at de Noailles, regretfully sacrificing clarity in his argument in order to try to send a second thought to the priest.

[Human Paragon 3]

Too true, Noailles nods. But perhaps that is what makes Man so great, and so terrible: unlike the angels and demons who are bound to their natures, Man has the capacity for either good or evil. It is that choice that colors who we are.

[The_Werebear]

Patrice

Well... Man's free nature might allow him to be a monumentally good person while doing something incredibly bad. Actually, it is about that that might friend and I wished to discuss with you, Father. However, it is a rather delicate matter involving some people who wish their privacy preserved. It is our duty as good Christians to try and keep their wishes as much as possible during their time of trial. However, it is beyond our knowledge to solve what they should do, so we wish your advice. Could we, possibly walk in the garden, good Father? He gives a glance to Guillaume, hoping that the people across the table will interpret it as concern, and that Guillaume will interpret it as "Get the others out of here"

[Mikeavelli]

Dr. Klein

"Oh, excuse me, I am Dr. Thaddeus Klein, currently a guest lecturer at the University in Paris. While my students would certainly find you as boring as they find me" He pauses a moment to laugh at his own joke, "I'm something of a student of history, and you General, are a living part of it. Certainly you've something to share from your many years of experience?"

[Human Paragon 3]

Dupont squints at Thadius, his eyesight evidently failing as he ages.

Perhaps another time, sir. But tell me...

He leans in uncomfortable close, hefting his bulk in a threatening way.

Have you ever killed a man?

[Mikeavelli]

Dr. Klein

Dr. Klein stutters a moment in his reply, "Nn.. No, I haven't."

He's visibly apprehensive now over where the old man is going with this.

[Toliudar]

Guillaume

Taking his cue from Brother Patrice, Guillaume also assumes a grave aspect, and stands slowly. He glances around at the young men whose conversation they were interrupting.

You'll excuse us, of course. My apologies. Just as hell may or may not be deprivation of the presence of god, so I'm sure that the father's brief absence would be a kind of purgatory for you.

He takes a step away from the table, inviting Father de Noailles to join them.

[Human Paragon 3]

Patrice, Guillarme:

Ulterior motives are unbecoming on a priest. But I'll indulge you. Louis, Renaldo, if you'll excuse us?

The priest rises, a dour expression on his face. The other two look at each other worriedly before doing the same.

I'm sure you have a lot to discuss. Father, we'll be here if you should need us.

Very good. Well, shall we gentlemen?

The two students leave you to your business and Noailles accompanies you out the garden gate.

Dr. Klein:

Well neither have I. HAHAHAHAHAHA! Dupont laughs uproariously at himself, all trace of menace gone, or hidden, from his demeanor. You're all right, doc. Let's get a drink.

[Altharis]

Sidling into the room with the same brash air, (though now with a hint of nervousness) Jacques stands next to the boy and copies some of his gestures.

At one point he whisper's in the boy's ear: "Excusez moi, but do you know whether the great Capitaine Alton St Pierre is winning right now? I am quite new to billiards, and my knowledge is lacking."

((EDIT:Stupid Question.))

[Lepre_Khan]

Riq Kelborn

The soul of discretion, Riq creeps down the hallway hoping to hear the argument.

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Move Silently (d20+2)[14]
Listen (d20)[15]

[Human Paragon 3]

Jacques:

The boy looks up at you, as if only just noticing your presence. Hard to say, m'lord, but I believe so. In truth, I don't know much about the game.

Riq:
You silently creep down the hallway. From around the corner, you can hear a bit better. Although the argument is taking place from behind closed doors, they are shouting loudly, so you can make it out clearly.

Man: I say! I don't deserve this shabby treatment!

Woman: Bully for you! I'm sorry if my bedroom isn't what you expected.

Man: Mademoiselle! I never meant to insult you... If that's what you think, then-
Woman: Yes, it is what I think. And, unlike you, all the money in the world won't change my mind.

The door opens up and the man is pushed out of it. He is well dressed and very handsome, wearing a white powdered wig.

Man: Please Elaina, I beg you... allow me to explain.

Woman: Good day sir! Please, give my regards to your ugly cousins.

The door slams shut, and the sound of two young women laughing is clearly audible from within. The man fumes, then catches sight of Riq. He looks taken aback.

What are you looking at?

[Altharis]

((Gaurd, I've changed my question, as the first question was stupid given the context.))