Cerrit Investigation

TRAVIS (CERRIT): "You seem to have gotten here before me. Anything I need to know before we begin?"
BRENNAN (ORWYN): "Well, you know, this is basically the debris. So, you know, we were parked over Vasselheim for about 10 days. You know, we were there trading, last port of call before coming home, taking off from Issylra and flying straight here. While we were there, you know, we get reports from the constabulary in Vasselheim that the Archmage Vespin Chloras, is-" Hold on one second. "The Archmage Vespin Chloras, has gone missing. We didn't think anything of it, you know. The report- basically the only reason we heard hide or tail of it is that the people there were worried that he was doing some heresy. You know, Vasselheim. They're worried that someone was doing something against the gods."
TRAVIS (CERRIT): "Uh-huh."
BRENNAN (ORWYN) "So, what we did then is, you know, they say, 'Hey, this guy do anything? Is he stowing away aboard the city and about to take off?' So we did a sweep and we said, 'No. Vespin Chloras is not stowed away.' But you know, even if he was, we're not going to answer to a-- We're not going to extradite the guy, so."
TRAVIS (CERRIT): "No trace of him? Just vanished into thin air?"
BRENNAN (ORWYN): "Well, "that's what we've been getting the chamber ready for. I mean, they- you know, we took a quick look at his chambers, no hide nor hair of him. I mean, the rumor is he was trying to recreate the Matron's ritual."
TRAVIS (CERRIT): "Heh. Another one of those, huh?"
BRENNAN (ORWYN): "Yeah, exactly! I mean, every two-bit sorcerer or hedge mage pops up with their body scattered in a miasma of their own goo trying to name check some Prime Deity comes in here "nothing more than a stain! But, you know, it looks like this joker did it so bad that they didn't even leave a hair or a fingernail. I mean, there's nothing left of the guy."
TRAVIS (CERRIT): "I mean, I appreciate you having me in here, but this seems like something you would be able to dismiss on your own. What makes this any different than the others?"
BRENNAN (ORWYN): "Well, we did dismiss it, and then they wanted to get rid of a bunch of this, which is what opens this can of worms up, so-" You see, he looks over and says, "This bric-a-brac, all this magical nonsense from his chambers, his sanctum, this made it aboard Avalir and it was headed for the arcane furnace. It was going to get disenchanted, broken down, and added to the Etheric Net, you know, so we can come back and dump all the ether into the ground, and replenish the continent of Domunas. But, you know, we grabbed it out of the line because, you know, we got word from, I think someone came down- Hey, Costello! Where did we get that?"
You see- he looks over. You see, he says- he says, "Member of the Ring of Silver came down and told us we needed to pull it."
TRAVIS (CERRIT): "Ring of Silver, you say?"
BRENNAN (COSTELLO): "Yeah. Said it was of academic importance, something like that."
TRAVIS (CERRIT): "I might know who that might have come from. You know what? You did the right thing involving me here. Rats in this city. Let's see what we have, shall we?"
BRENNAN (ORWYN): "All right, boys, light her up!" You see [heavy bwoom] the psychometric chamber in the center of the Hall of Eyes alights and, rendered in perfect detail, not using illusion, which you would detect, but using pure transmutation recreates from stone the Sanctum of Vespin Chloras.
AABRIA: You're in a different movie than the rest of us!
TRAVIS (CERRIT): As this happens, as he's done dozens of times before, you see his arms fall to his side, his irises open wide, and all the feathers on the back and top of his head stand up tall, full crest.
BRENNAN: As you begin to do your thing, Orwyn keeps talking, knowing that this is of second nature to you, that you can split your focus easily. He looks out and says, "Yeah, well, you know, we had this squad teleport back when we were over the ocean and they got back. He's still not back there. So Porter's Guild's not happy that we're holding onto this stuff with the whole Great Registry and everything. The fact that there's no Guildmaster for them right now that the election's been postponed. So, you know." Go ahead and give me your investigation check.
SAM: Ooh, a roll.
AABRIA: Yes!
TRAVIS (CERRIT): He's just moving slowly around the room as this happens. Holy shit. Hmm, hmm. 31.
MARISHA: Oh! ♪ Level 14 ♪
AABRIA: Oh, let's go!
LOU: There it is. There it is.
BRENNAN: For those at home, in the general breakdown of difficulty classes of DCs, 30 is the top success level that they list. They don't list any higher than 30. You're looking around. So the chamber shifts. Stone grows, shifts. You are looking at the sanctum. As you are looking at it, a series of controls opens up around you. You see these little glyphs. You know that one of them you can shift to move the sanctum backwards through time. The way this magic works is it is the memory of the objects in the space.
LUIS: Wow!
BRENNAN: So you have a recording of what the objects remember. Unfortunately, the way the psychometric chamber works is these objects don't record the passage of beings. They don't record organic creatures. They just record other inanimate objects. But you can move through time, you can move through day and night, you can see different states that the sanctum was in. Another one allows you to actually zoom in. You almost never need to use that one. That's for people that are not- [mimes eyes focusing intensely]
As you look in, you see Orwyn goes, "So, I mean, we're holding on to this stuff for academic concern. I mean, what do you think, you think the guy actually did the damn thing? I feel like I read in my history books that when the Matron of Ravens ascended, it was pretty clear there was a new God of Death. I mean, people knew about it. I think we would've heard there's a new god of jerking off or whatever this guy is."
Your attention is drawn to- This sanctum is windowless. It is cold and austere. There's some candelabras. There are a lot of writings here in some of the objects. Glyphs that you recognize as Celestial. Some you recognize as Infernal. You see something on the floor. It's badly rusted or corroded. It's an old piece of metal. It's maybe about foot and a half long. It's got this patina of corrosion on it, It's got this patina of corrosion on it, but your eye moves to it. As you examine it, you realize that this is something disenchanted and it used to be much larger. On a 31, you see a little glyph [fwoosh] hover in the air next to you with a library, the symbol of the Librarium Incantatum opens up and you see the ability to move through all recorded artifacts, magical items, everything Avalir's ever come into contact with appears before you, but you're looking at this thing and you feel looking at the corrosion on it it used to be much bigger. This is a fragment left of something that wasn't just broken or shattered. It was almost rusted away instantaneously.
TRAVIS (CERRIT): Is the shape familiar with anything I've held before? Is it a fragment or a piece, or does it look whole?
BRENNAN: Thinking of it as a fragment, you recognize the curvature of the end of it starts to curl back. You think you're looking at a part of a bow.
As you think of that, you see that Orwyn comes over and says, "What do you got there? What are you looking at, Pinch?"
TRAVIS (CERRIT): "Well, unless my ears haven't served me well, I think we're dealing with a piece of a weapon."
BRENNAN: As you do that, you see that the glyph next to you [brrrrip, ping, fwoosh] zeros in, and you begin to look. As you begin to hold it in your hand, this dull, inert, non-magical metal, you look really closely and see that the corrosion comes from a disenchantment. Now, this is where your impossible investigation skills and also your proficiency with arcana and magical workings. Most of the disenchantments you come across work in a spell casting way in which the thing that was being disenchanted was targeted. As a result, when something corrodes or is disenchanted, it tends to have a pattern in the patina that is left on it that starts at a center and moves outward, right? That a wizard in a dispelling check will name something and break it. Now, already to disenchant a magical item, we're talking about 9th-level magic. You're talking about really, really rare stuff even in the Age of Arcanum. This doesn't have that pattern to it. You're looking almost at forensically how you would look at something and say, 'Okay, if this was targeted to be disenchanted, it would start at a center point and move out.' Everything here has the same grain to it, which means that some energy came into a space and exploded or moved outwards and was able to indiscriminately disenchant a magical object.
TRAVIS: Along with everything else.
BRENNAN: As you look, on that 31, you look and see marks on the ground of a summoning circle you look and see marks on the ground of a summoning circle that has been completely eradicated. That something was supposed to be bound here. The thing that was supposed to be bound so wildly and easily escaped those bounds that it erased any obvious trace of a summoning circle. You don't even think the other guys that have come in here already, you don't think Orwyn can see it, you don't think anyone else can see it, but you're looking and see traces. There's no recollection of what the runes even would've been, but you just see from the spacing, you're like, 'Yep. That's a 16-point circle. That's the corners. It's oriented with the largest rune being due north.' This is a summoning circle that's been erased.
TRAVIS (CERRIT): "Orwyn, I'm betting balls to bone, this is not your standard fare. No."
BRENNAN (ORWYN): "Yes, well, so some kind of- This guy tried to call something up and it got the better of him? I mean, they said he was working on, what they're all working on. He said he was trying to crack godhood."
TRAVIS (CERRIT): "Right."

Episode 1 - Excelsior - 1:34:05