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"How d'you do? I'm Mihaela Ardeluc and I used to correspond with Petros." Upon hearing that the others aren't back yet, Mihaela turns around to head out and start looking for them, only to stop once she hears Dragos' voice. "Much appreciated, Dragos. A trained fighter would certainly not go amiss. This town, something's odd about it and I'd feel much safer with numbers on our side."
Mihaela is still somewhat expecting the book to lash out, but stuffs it into one of her pockets before turning to the others. "That sounds like a good idea, Elisa. I'm also quite curious as to the contents of that letter."
Mihaela nods at Christoph and whisper, "I'll take it. I have plenty of pockets where we can hide it for the time being", before going to the table and hesitantly picking up the book, hoping that nothing weird will happen.
Mihaela looks at the door in confusion. "Strange. It's almost as if there's something blocking the door from the other side. I can't make it work. Would you like to try, Elisa?" She glances at Christoph as he tells the rest about the necromantic aura, her eyes narrowing slightly as she tries to suppress a spike of fear. "I don't … I don't understand what's going on, but it's clearly not good." She steps away from the door and pats her pockets, checking that all her implements are where they're supposed to be.
Mihaela walks up to Sarianna and tries to open the door.
Mihaela immediately follows Elisa's example and backs towards the comforting presence of the rest of the group. "I don't like this at all. Sarianna, stay behind us." Her eyes constantly scan the room, trying to see any dangers as she draws her crossbow. "What have you been up to, Adivion? ", she mutters.
Mihaela looks to the others. "Copper wires are used in at least four spells, but the only I know from the Evocation school is Sending. The spell allows the user to exchange short messages with specific individuals the user knows across any distance or across other planes."
Mihaela looks up from her searching pf the room. "There are pieces of copper wire here. Does anyone know why he would leave that lying around?"
Mihaela frowns at the open window. "How rude to leave the window open like this. He could at least have closed it when he left." She will look around the room, trying to see if there is anything else left except the book or if there is anything that looks out of place.
"Do you sense any magic, Christoph? That book looks fairly valuable, but this room … Something feels wrong here." A worried look crosses Mihaela's face and she fiddles with the scarf wrapped around her shoulders.
Mihaela frowns at the man's sudden forgetfulness. Strange that he can't remember the name. It's almost as if the knowledge disappeared all of a sudden. Or maybe he just has a poor memory.
Welcome Dragos!
She waves her hand in greeting as Christoph mentions her name and, despite herself, she's curious to see what alchemical components the shop keeps. Keep your mind focussed on the matter at hand, Mihaela, she scolds herself.
Mihaela is a bit surprised that the girl is so talktative, but stays on the opposite side of the street, so as not to scare her away. Instead, she turns her attention to the other children, trying to see if they still look alarmed.
Mihaela's eyes briefly flash red in annoyance, before she throws her hands up in the air and retreats to the other side of the street, muttering to herself. "Ħaqq għal. Nispera li ma ridottax iċ-ċansijiet tal-oħrajn." Infernal: "Damn it. I hope I didn't ruin the chances of the others."
Mihaela does not pick up on anything out of the ordinary regarding Christoph. She follows the others towards the children, trying to smile comfortingly at the girls.
Sadly, she's always felt uncomfortable around children and the smile doesn't exactly come across as comforting. Mihaela, not being a Varisian speaker, stays behind the others, not wanting to intrude. Instead, she looks around the road, trying to see if any adults in the vicinity is as pale as the little girl.
Yeah, I just managed to post after failing several times.
"Do any of you speak Varisian? I don't, but I find myself intrigued by the cadence of the childrens' song and that pale girl over there", Mihaela says to her companions, whilst continuing to look at the playing children.
Mihaela looks a bit disappointed. Clearly she had hoped the investigation would reveal more. "I don't think I have anything else to offer, but we should see if we recognise anything the piece of cloth could have come from whilst we're in town." She brightens a bit, "Letting Sofia look at the cloth is a great suggestion though. I keep forgetting we have someone with us who can do things like that."
This really is the least stable platform I've experienced in the last decade.
Mihaela is delighted at seeing Christoph squirm before giving him a wink to tell him it's alright. "Sounds good, Christoph. Let's go, and please call me Mihaela. Miss Ardeluc sounds so terribly formal." On her way out, she hurries to her room and picks up her adventuring gear, taking care to grab her alchemical kit. Following along behind Christoph and Elisa, Mihaela turns around at Kendra's question. "Christoph thought he spotted something over there when he looked out of the window", she says to the other woman, waving to the place the others are heading to. As she catches up with her companions, she tells them, "I didn't want to tell her the truth. No need to scare her. If we find anything out, we can tell her."
"I know I might not look like it, but I'm actually not too shabby at tracking, due to having travelled extensively over Ustalav in the last few years. I'm not as experienced as you, Christoph, but maybe I can be of some assistance?"
Mihaela refills her cup and looks towards the blind woman. "Sofia, maybe if we started with letting you look at Petros' journal and possibly the place where Christoph saw the flying bird and the person before heading out?" She turns to the entire room. "Then I suggest visiting the places we didn't try yesterday to see if we can learn anything more. Afterwards, we can take stock of what we know and maybe revisit the shrine and the inn if there's time enough left in the day." Mihaela looks at all of the people present one by one, trying to appear more certain than she actually is.
Mihaela was not what one would call a morning person, so she is not out of bed until sometime after dawn, spurred on mostly by the fact that there is a mystery to be solved and a murderer to catch. She dresses herself quickly and, whilst walking down the stairs, ties back her hair with a shawl. As she enters the room where the others are sitting, she says "Good morning" to everyone and hastens towards the tea pot. Tea is truly the putty that keeps society together. How many differences haven't been set aside over a cup of tea?, she muses, rather pretentiously, before finding herself a chair at the table. "Did everyone sleep well?"
Excellent job, mate.
Yeah, I agree.
Friday sounds good.
"I think that sounds like a good idea, Ellie. It can't hurt to be prepared, in case the Way comes knocking in the night.". Mihaela settles back in the chair, comforted by the fact that someone else brought up the idea of keeping a watch. "Sofia, do you need any help with the psychometry? Is there anything we can do to help you?"
I think that about covers it. There are those other libraries as well, but our characters don't know about them yet. And I'll definitely check out that mashup.
Leaning back in the chair, Mihaela turns to the veiled woman. "I can't say that I'm familiar with the process, Sofia, but if you think it could help, do it. Anything that could provide us with more information would be beneficial at this point." At the moment, it feels like we don't have a lot to go on. Her thoughts once again stray to the Whispering Tyrant and his prison in Gallowspire. To break her dark train-of-thought, Mihaela gets up and walks over to the table with the teapot and pours some more for herself, grabbing a slice of bread and some spread in the process. "More tea, anyone?", she says, trying to sound more cheerful than she actually feels.
Despite her efforts, the others can notice a slight tremor in her voice and a hesitancy in her movements.
Mihaela listens with interest at the others. "The lack of details regarding the woman is quite curious. The sheriff seemed to be very detail oriented otherwise. I wonder …" She trails off and seems to look inwards for a moment.
She tells the others what Ellie and she found about the Whispering Way in Petros' library and concludes with "… The Way seem to be a thoroughly nasty bunch. If Tar-Baphon were to come back, that would be ugly news for Ustalav, the Inner Sea, maybe all of Golarion."
Mihaela's mind strays to the Whispering Tyrant. If Tar-Baphon were to escape his prison … I'm not sure we would be able to stop him this time." She suppresses a shudder and replies to Ellie. "That is an extremely good question. For them to have a presence in Ravengro, there must something they hope to find here. And as you said, our best bet would be that it's got something to do with the prison. I hope that the others are on the lookout for trouble and don't do anything too rash."
Which knowledge skills would be applicable for the research checks?
Without really looking up from the manuscript she's started to read, Mihaela says to Kendra and Ellie, "I'm not even sure there is a system here. Petros might just have memorised where the books are on the shelves." She looks at the two other women. "That's how I file my books and manuscripts. An organised chaos, if you will." Remembering how awful she herself felt after her husband's death, Mihaela looks more closely at Kendra as she walks over to the desk to pour some tea for everyone. "How do you feel, my dear? We really meant what we said, when we told you not to hesistate if there were anything we could do for you." With that, she hands cups of tea to the others and goes back to her seat.
Neither do I :-)
I'm fine with sitting around for a while if it fits the story better, so maybe let them do a bit of investigating before we do our stuff towards the middle/end? Or what do you think, Ellie?
Because the other group has more to do, more sites to visit, would it make more sense for us (Ellie and I) to hold off a bit on our part in the library?
Mihaela feels confused and rather unsure of herself after the recent events. Could I have been that mistaken? I was sure that someone was trying to lead us away from the room. She walks back to the others in time to hear Kendra's answers to Elisa's questions. The girl obviously has a good head on her shoulders, especially given the circumstances. "Thank you", she says to Kendra before turning to Ellie. "Shall we take a look at Petros' books and notes and see if we manage to find anything?"
That's fine with me as well, DM.
"What is going on here? This does not make any sense", Mihaela says to herself as she scans the room, feeling a bit paranoid.
Mihaela is struck by a thought that maybe someone wanted them out of the other room, so she abrubtly turns around and runs back towards it. "There's no reason for whoever knocked on the door to make themselves known like that if they didn't have to. What if they want something that's in the room and tried to get us all to leave by creating a distraction?", she shouts as she hurries by the others.
Mihaela looks slightly puzzled as she replies to Sofia, "There's something weird going here. Kendra couldn't have managed to get back to the kitchen before I opened the door, but yet I hear her crying from there." She eyes the others, "We should see if everything is alright in the kitchen and what made that sound if Kendra didn't make it."
Mihaela walks over to the door and opens it, "Would you like some help with the tea?", she asks Kendra. Turning towards the window, "I see we have some properly Ustalavic weather", she says to no one in particular, whilst waiting for Kendra's reply.
"I agree, Elisa, we must treat everyone as a possible member of or at least an informant for the Way. Who knows how far their influence reaches." Mihaela looks around at the others, trying to impress on them the importance of their situation. "The posting board is an excellent idea, I just looked at it long enough to realise it only concerned things happening in the town, so having a closer look at that could give us some insights."
Mihaela is taken aback by Ellie seemingly treating her as a clerk, but takes the sheafs of parchment anyway. As long as it doesn't happen all the time, it's fine, she thinks. I'm not that much taller than you, Ellie, but I will try. Otherwise, perhaps one of our taller friends might help us before they leave?" She smiles at Elisa, "Thank you, Elisa. That would be nice. Here's the key to my room. There shouldn't be much in there, just a backpack and a crossbow, really." Mihaela tries to remember if there is anything she left lying around in the inn, but nothing comes to mind. "I hadn't even thought of what we should say to the townfolk. Maybe we could tell them that we're tying up loose ends for the professor before we leave?" Even as she's saying it, Mihaela knows that it'd probably be futile, just like Sofia said. "Gibs is going to cause trouble, whatever we do. Of that I am certain", she finishes with a sigh, before looking down at the parchments Ellie gave her.
In response to Elisa's suggestion, Mihaela gives a satisfied nod and joins Ellie by the books, a determined look on her face. "I'll keep a look out for those who died in the fire, Christoph. See if I come across any reference in the books. Also, maybe Kendra has the things Petros carried when he was found? It would be unnecessary to go looking for them if they're already here. I know I've made that mistake many times, hastened across town, looking for things that were in the next room.", Mihaela says with a slight smile. Turning to Sofia she says with a furrowed brow, "I'm also curious as to what the people who found Petros were doing in Harrowstone, if it's such a taboo place." Her face brightens momentatily as her thoughts turn to the innkeep. "Should we all head over to the inn to settle our tabs and pick up our things, before heading off in our respective directions? That way, we can make this a base of operations, and we would be less spread out, if the Whispering Way comes knocking", Mihaela says with a grim look, before looking out the window at the town outside.
Mihaela feels a sense of disbelief as Kendra reads the circled journal entries. Petros was murdered? It can't be true! But, what if it is true? Out loud she says, to Elisa and the rest of the group: "I will join you in this search. If those blackguards of the Whispering Way really did murder the Professor, I too want to see them pay for their crimes. For the sake of Kendra and for Petros' memory." As she's speaking, tears slowly slide down her cheeks and she doesn't try to wipe them away, feeling as if they give her a chance to focus her mind. Rubbing her arms, Mihaela turning to Ellie, "I don't know where I would be of the most use, but I'm willing to do whatever needs doing. I am used to sorting through and finding information in written sources. As you no doubt noticed at the inn, tact and social grace are not amongst my better qualities."
Mihaela nods at Kendra and Elisa, "I would love to have a look at the books, though my areas of expertise might not overlap with the subjects in the books. We will see in due time, I suppose." She absentmindedly fiddles with the book on alchemy she found in the bookshelf. "As for staying here and helping you get things sorted, I'd be happy to. I agree with Elisa that this place hasn't made me want to retire here, so I completely understand your desire to move back to Lepidstadt. It's as if all the most insular people of Ustalav have gathered here to be miserable together. For the life of me, I cannot understand why the innkeep has chosen to stay in this town."
Mihaela is delighted that the jam is produced locally and promises herself to pick up a few jars before leaving. When the councilman mentions her name, she replies, "Yes, I am Mihaela Ardeluc", and gave Ellie a nod as she picked up the dropped key. I wonder what kind of books he kept in that chest? I'd love the chance to go trhough them and possibly also a few of the ones in Lepidstadt.
Mihaela picks up on something in Freija's voice and suspects she's not telling the whole truth, but decides to not do anything about it for now. Turning to Kendra, she says, "I will of course honour your father's wishes, if it's alright with you that we stay here in Ravengro? I wouldn't want to impose on your hospitality, so if you'd rather I stay at the inn, I'd be happy to do that instead."
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