This post has the following content warnings:
some dath ilani are more Chaotic than others, but
Next Post »
« Previous Post
+ Show First Post
Total: 4482
Posts Per Page:
Permalink

"That's... higher probability than I was expecting for a first guess that wild.  Do Zon-Kuthon attacks happen a lot around here?"

Permalink

This wouldn't be expected to be Carissa's expertise so it'd be weird for her to be answering even though she's either better at or less scared of improvising in Kelthamish terms.

 

No! I can think of a handful of known instances in the last two centuries! But direct divine intervention in general is incredibly rare, and there have been three instances of it here in the last twenty-four hours...

Permalink

"No! I can think of a handful of known instances in the last two centuries! But direct divine intervention in general is incredibly rare, and there have been three instances of it here in the last twenty-four hours."

Permalink

"And the reason direct divine intervention is rare is because the gods pay each other so only the one who cares most intervenes, and one case where that might be expected not to hold is a god who can't reasonably do value-trading with the other ones." That's just analysis and she may as well do it herself. "And - I'm not thinking of any reasons for the spell that aren't 'your god is predicting or requesting conflict with Zon Kuthon', so fundamentally that's got to shake out to 'He starts it' or 'we start it'."

Permalink

"That's... an odd way of forecasting, and I'd have to think about whether or not what you just said makes any sense, but at least it's not obvious nonsense - to bump up the entropy of all your probability distributions after encountering a series of low-probability events, if that makes sense when I say it to you in Baseline.  How long do I have left before Taldane goes incomprehensible to me?"

Permalink

"Seventy minutes, which is also the duration of your Spell Immunity, so someone can prepare another Share Languages for you and have it ready by then."

Permalink

"Thank you.  I apologize for requiring that resource of you, especially since the way in which it came about, that of my attempting to immunify myself against any economicmagics cast on myself without my knowledge, reflected both my ignorance of whether to trust you and my stupidly forgetting the spell already on me."

"Last spell cast, now."  Keltham casts his fourth-circle divination.  Maybe it brings answers, if it's the most powerful answering-spell.

Permalink

Some spells have more of a subjective sensation to them than others; this one has a strong one, of magic radiating out like pressurized water, stripping away whatever it encounters. It doesn't do much, though; a drawer concealed in the desk glows, and there's a sense he could look in a direction that's none of the three dimensions he's familiar with. 

Permalink

We're going to have to revise all materials referencing Glimpse of Truth to claim it's just a more powerful Invisibility Purge that also finds magically hidden things. So he's not trying to stack it with Abadar's Truthtelling. ....maybe it's mostly meant for seeing enemies lurking on other planes, but he doesn't need it now that we've got a Forbiddance up. Call it, uh,

"Glimpse of Beyond."

Permalink

"There's a drawer -"  And it's gone.  "A concealed drawer in that desk right there was calling my attention."  Keltham points it out.

Permalink

Security casts Dispel Magic and then uses a Mage Hand to tug it open. It's empty. 

Permalink

"Detects secret doors and secret compartments, and people Polymorphed into other people, though the main thing it's for is detecting people hidden in other planes. I'm...not sure if that part of it would work with the Forbiddance up."

Permalink

"I felt like I could look in a new direction that wasn't the standard three-space-one-time, but the spell ended before I could explore that.  There wasn't anything there, in that direction, that I saw... I wish I'd known to use that spell before the Forbiddance went up, just in case there was something there before."

"I'm very much playing amateur-security at this point, but, like, maybe check everyone here for 'people Polymorphed into other people' if you don't do that on a daily basis?  Or if you've got a version of this spell that lasts longer, look around for secret doors that aren't on the consensus-social-reality map here..."  Keltham sighs.  "You'd probably have thought of that already, I'm guessing, but, trust but verify, I should say it aloud myself even if I think you've already thought of it, because security."

Permalink

"We do routinely check for secret doors and for Polymorphed people," security confirms. "And would be routinely checking for attackers or spies from other planes, if not for the Forbiddance."

Permalink

"All right.  That is everything I had planned.  I think next I... well, next I talk to Ione briefly, and then go to bed."  He needs a book of the standard cleric spells, one that goes up to at least fourth-circle; hopefully Ione didn't use up all her book-borrows for the day.  "Though if Ione doesn't have Comprehend Languages..."  Then he needs a translator.  Carissa or Security?  Which would Ione prefer?  Keltham's guessing Security; they're more professionally obliged to keep confidences.  "You okay sticking with me slightly longer as a translator?" Keltham says to Security.  "Should be brief."

Permalink

"Not a problem."

Permalink

"Good night, Keltham."

Permalink

"Until later, Carissa.  On net and in total, it was still a pretty nice day in terms of direct causal impacts on me, if not in terms of the net total direction of all the evidential updates I executed."

Permalink

"Same to you. I think."

Permalink

Keltham turns to go, gesturing Security to precede him.  "You're the one who knows where to find Ione, or find somebody who knows where to find her," Keltham says.

Permalink

Security will lead Keltham to Ione. In the library. Since apparently she has to stay there. 

 

 

 

Permalink

Carissa will ask other Security to make her invisible and go with her there as well, in case anything requires her intervention.

Permalink

Ione almost starts a genuine if faint smile on seeing Keltham, before Ione sees the Security with him.  "Keltham," she says.

Permalink

"Please ask her if she's got Comprehend Languages prepared, or if Security needs to translate for her."

Total: 4482
Posts Per Page: