History of Towers (D3 29th oct before classes)

[Layla Smith]

Although it was midterms, and Layla had spent time studying, she'd managed to find time to continue looking into the mystery around this abandoned tower....that was clearly not all it seemed. After having her breakfast and preparing for the day, Layla had made her way down and was heading out...before coming to stop outside the main maps room of the Horned Serpents.

I wonder...

After firing a quick text to Sylvain to come to the Horned Serpent common room (he had to be awake, right?), she entered and began to look over the maps while waiting for Sylv to hurry up. So what if it's midterms, this mystery still needed solving!

[Sylvain Leloup]

A reply came a few minutes after: omw

it would take 10 to 15 minutes more before a knock could be heard at the door

[Layla Smith]

The knocking broke Layla from her thoughts, and she moved quickly to open the door. "Morning. Good to see you're awake! Come in, this is cool, you gotta see this."

She motioned Sylv in, then lead him to the giant map room, which had a mix of old and modern with computers and old style books aplenty. It was the giant map that she seemed interested in though.

"So from what someone explained to me, I can use this map to see events from the past."

[Sylvain Leloup]

A rare thing to have a Thunderbird in the snakes's den.

Well for *this* Thunderbird it was so he took the opportunity to look at *everything* while they walked to the giant map

''What really?'' now that got his attention ''That is cool indeed...oh!''

That was a good moment as any to uncover the book he had found in the attic

''I found this book and this map in the Thunderbird attic...it was last rented by M.M''

[Layla Smith]

"Ooh, the same M.M as the note we found in the library?" Layla moved to one of the tables, pushing a few things away to make space. She'd already put the book on Vigenére ciphers and a large amount of paper which had attempts of codebreaking on it.

"What's the book about? Any more clues?"

[Sylvain Leloup]

''Take a look but be carefull''

Quite the curious thing, too. It was a old book, tattered from the 1840s. It looks heavily warn, and the oils of constant use have made it weaker, crumbling and needing of preservation. However, it does offer some interests. Like, a hand drawn map of the school back in the older days, with the surrounding areas of it.

It does include the location of where the Thirteenth Tower would be, as it is one of many towers with a number next to it, ranging from 1 to 16.

[Layla Smith]

"Is this like, the first book ever printed? It looks ancient!" Layla looked at the book "I could reparo but I'd be worried it was cursed or blessed or something."

She carefully turned some pages, looking it over. Talking while she read.

"16 towers? How curious...so it's from the mid 1800s. I wonder if that's when M.M is from? If it is, we could look up anyone who was at the school at that time. Might help with narrowing down where to look on that magical map, it's a tricky one to use. By the way, do you have a date for the dance?"

She didn't look up while talking, just reading and carefully turning pages, making notes as she did so.

[Sylvain Leloup]

''Yeah and some clues might be undone by it'' he commented ''Like dog ears and such...I am not sure M.M is that old but they might very well have been a thunderbird or have been the thunderbird headmaster.''

He moved closer to the map before the last question was asked

''Huh? Er...no, why?''

[Layla Smith]

"Dog ears?" Layla frowned, looking up at Sylvain "that's an unusual trait, but still if they are the Thunderbird headmaster that's pretty massive and they'd be pretty well known. Did you find anything to say when the book was placed up in the attic? It might be from the 1800s but doesn't mean the book was put there then."

She paused, looking back down at the book and trying to focus on that before talking again.

"Well...wanna go with me? I mean, I'm kinda new here and don't know many people, and you're kinda the person I know the best. Other than Grace, but I think Grace is super popular so has tons of better options than me and um...it means we can slip out after without anyone being suspicious. You know, for this mystery."

Keep facing that map and don't look at me damnit! she though to herself, biting her lip and hoping she wasn't rambling too much.

[Sylvain Leloup]

Sylvain's expression was quizzical?

''Oh. Yeah. That sounds like a nice idea but''

He looked between the map and Layla

''But, hum, that's not what I meant by dog ears. It's, you know, when you fold the corner of a page.''

[Layla Smith]

"Oh. Wow I'm an idiot" Layla laughed, a little nervously, as she couldn't work out if he'd ignored her asking him or not "were there some obviously um...dog eared pages?"

She paused.

"Also um...was that Oh yeah in reference to the dance? Or something else? Because if you don't want to that's totally cool. I'm not pressuring or anything!" she paused, getting flustered by her own thinking. Oh my god Layla shut up "um yeah uh...so...maps. Yeah. ok, I have an idea!"

[Sylvain Leloup]

''I did not look too much for fear of damaging it further''

The boy visibly looked uneasy and took a few moments to reply the other part

''Going to the dance is cool'' he said as calmly as possible

[Layla Smith]

"Ok. Cool."

Breathe in. Breathe out.

"Ok. Maps. I've got two ideas" she pushes past that embarrassing moment as quickly as humanly possible "first one is to find out why they never rebuilt the tower. Likely hard but not impossible. Second one would be to find out who wrote the cipher and maybe find the passphrase. Incredibly difficult."

She got up, walking over to the map, not standing too close to Syvl...to avoid giving the wrong idea!

"I'm thinking we might learn something if we find out why they didn't want to include the tower in the build."

[Sylvain Leloup]

''We could also observe the school's construction and re-construction...some clues might be in there''

[Layla Smith]

"True...I'm more interested in why they didn't rebuild that tower. There had to be a reason, they rebuilt everything else..." She moved towards the computer, bringing up some info.

(ooc - waiting for a GM question before we can continue with using the map)

[Layla Smith]

(Doublepost to get thread moving)

"Ok, we first need to find on the map where this took place...I suspect it's around the main city if they had to rebuild the school. Around this kind of time, as we know it was rebuilt...oh I think I found a reference!"

Working with Sylv, the two of the managed to discover in one of the books a small reference to when the discussion of the schools rebuilding was happening. Sylvs good eye again coming into play here.

With the information gathered, Layla moved back over to the map, taking her wand out. Divination was not her strongest suit, but she was going to try!

"We would like to see the moment when the thirteenth tower was decided to not be rebuilt, and why."

An elegant swish of her wand...and they were in.

(ooc rolls:
Using the Serpent Map part 1 - history/int roll. Finding details of when school decided not to rebuild 13th tower and why. Formidable! boost from Sylv: 2eP+1eA+1eB+5eD+1eC 2 successes, 3 threat

Did one too many difficulty dice so 1 less threat here (means 2 successes 2 threat)
Using the Serpent Map part 1 - divination/cunning roll. Finding details of when school decided not to rebuild 13th tower and why. Activating the map. Hard difficulty! boost from Sylv: 3eA+1eB+3eD 3 successes, 2 threat

[Flession]

You manage to, somehow, find a book about a day back in the year about a student who saw the Headmaster and the Vice headmaster by the 13th tower. It is old, tattered, the pages itself are missing information. Basically, a less than worthy piece of information to use for this ceremony.

Then again, you really don't have much else to work with, right?

Placing the book in front of the map, you began to cast your spells and the map begins to shift, you have a view of the past, clearly. You see before you the wreckage of the tower, a dark night with smoke and moaning. Something had happened here, but to what, it is not yet clear...

[Flession]

"Just not in the budget Richard. We have to start making repair the school, repair everything. We'll just have to give it back to nature and forget about it."

Rubbing his temples, the older man sighed. "The Tower system was there this whole time, you know. There's a saying, 'Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up.' We don't know why he--" A large shift in the map occurs, as the focus of your spell is incredibly hard to maintain. Grabbing from within, you manage to regain control of the vision and the sight continues.

A long pause as he rubbed his temples as another man appears in it. "Oy, listen. Listen, we cannae dae anythin' unless MACUSA gies th' coin, kay? We git ither bits o' th' schuil tae worry aboot, 'n' noo that he's deid..." The man grunts. "We cannae afford tae fix everything. Juist hae tae condense whit we kin." The man named Richard grunted loudly and slumped down. "I'm worried tha--

After that, you begin to lose your focus of the spell, as you slump onto the floor. With that, the map begins to return to normal, as if nothing had occurred, its notes and information still in its place.

[Layla Smith]

"No!"

Layla crumpled to the floor, visibly shaken and sweating, her breathing labored from the experience.

"No...need to find out...what it was...protecting..." she shakily grabbed for the table, trying to pull herself up. Unsuccessfully it seemed.