Act 2: Upheaval III - The Master Weaver and the Arena

"Hmm, there was lime, orange, and a mix of all of them," Amber says. "I can get you some once the first fight is over."

Mihai notices that Volwind glances at Amber with obvious interest, but he also does his best not to stare at her too long. For the most part, he tries to focus his attention on the conversation the monks are having.

"I don't mind," the Administrator replies. "I know a room where we can go speak in private. Should we go now?"

Mihai shrugs - "Sure."

"I would love that. Please get me orange."

"Orange it is then," Amber says with a nod.

The three adventurers then follow Zawistowski to a small private room located under the terraces. Once she's made sure that no one can hear them talk, she faces the party and asks "I assume you've had time to read Professor Goodman's notes?"

OOC:

"We've had time, yes." Konrad produces the research and the summary. He holds the booklet in one hand, and the stacks of notes hover in the air as he hands over Femke's summary first. "Here is a summary."

"There were a lot of books too but they were mostly academic ones you could buy from any good merchant that supplies the Faculty or Citadel. You can have them if you want." Steve pats the bag of holding to show he has them.

The Administrator takes the summary from Konrad's hand and gives him her purse. "Thank you," she says. "Could you please put these papers in here?"

The purse is way too small to hold all of Goodman's research, but she doesn't seem concerned by this problem. When Konrad looks into it however, he realizes it's a bag of holding.

Zawistowski then faces Steve and listens to him. "It might be better if I keep them, yes."

While the two mages put the notes and the books into her bag of holding, she reads the summary Femke wrote for the party members. She furrows her brows the more she reads, and once she's finally done, she looks away in disgust, folds the sheet of paper and puts it into her pocket.

"...Thank you for getting rid of him."

Her voice is harsh and cold.

Spellcraft 16
Green magic

"Huh, that's a rather handy enchantment for lady to have put on her purse," he smirks.

After she reads the summary, he asks, "So what are the plans with these?" He raises the purse full of notes and the booklet for emphasis.

Steve nods. "I didn't like him much when he was a teacher at the Citadel. He was a harsh teacher, which would have been fine given the subject if he hadn't been a bully too. It was worth getting kicked out of the Weaving Lab for good just to stick it to him." This is the most Steve has ever said about it.

"It sounds like he deserved what you did to him then," Zawistowski replies. She then faces Konrad and answers his question. "To be frank, I don't know, but... let's say you three were in my place; what would you do with this research?"

Konrad:

"We still don't have a motive. He was a monster, sure. Could even say he was crazy, but you can't call him stupid. He said he was going to save lives with this research - more than we could count. I still don't know what from."

He glances at the notebook.

"All you've got there are places, dates, and the logistics of a horror show. The runes themselves aren't going away that easy; they're engraved into the arms and heads of his victims now."

He thinks about it some more.

"I'm not sure we couldn't squeeze another answer or two out of those, given time."

"Well I would hang onto a written summary and burn the rest." He doesn't have to think about it. "I would want to reduce the possibility of anyone replicating what we've found. The enchantments that allow one to seize and use another person's whole being by force are morally repugnant. So I would destroy any findings anyone could use as a jump-off point to accomplish Goodman's means. Simple."

"Hmm, I'm not sure. I don't like anything Goodman was doing here so my first inclination is to burn them. But Mihai may be right and it might be important later. I'd hate to see them show up in use somewhere though."

Anastajza listens to the adventurers' opinion very attentively. Once they fall quiet, she takes a moment to consider all that she's heard so she can make a decision. "I see..." she mutters. "I also feel inclined to destroy this research, but it might be prove useful one day. One last question: what will you do with the copies you've made of these papers?"

She peers into the adventurers' eyes.

"Mostly nothing. But we are going to keep an eye out for anything that might be related. We think he might have had conspirators out there somewhere."

Mihai considers for a moment - "Their abilities were interesting, but i'm not about to start carving my arms. Maybe if someone could engrave that shield into a bracer, but i'm not about to let a weaver in on it and then see these weapons out on the street. Kids have got enough to kill each other with already."

Konrad looks between Steve and the Administrator. What are they talking about? "We have no plans to duplicate this research. In fact, I plan to maintain a zero tolerance policy of any copies I come across. They will be used as kindling."

The Administrator slowly nods and says, "I'd like to assure you no Myrzen will ever try to replicate these runes, but the weavers will need to study them to help the victims you saved yesterday. They tell me it's possible however to remove these runes without hurting the patients; it might just take some time before they manage to do it."

Konrad thinks for a second. "There is an alternative, albeit a ruthless one."

"Which we're not taking."

Anastajza looks at both Konrad and Mihai and raises an eyebrow. She waits.

"Clearly not." It's not like we could get away with it at this point, anyway. He floats the booklet to her. "The designs are inside that book. I hope there will be no further use for it?"

Deception 18
Looking for lies

She takes the booklet in her hands and says, "I plan to keep this in a safe somewhere, and hopefully, we'll never have to use it."

She then waits for Konrad to give her the bag of holding which contains all of Goodman's research.

Konrad:

Pursing his lips, Konrad hands over the purse with the rest of the notes. "This is a very bad idea, Administrator."