Scene 0: Recap/Ritual 

Salih's ritual reveals that the defenestration is the first move of a larger game. Salih runs simulations. Resonance builds up, uses Prime to clean the room. (0 - 13)

Scene 1: Matriculation Meeting

The student body has grown from 8 to about 60. About 50% Catholic, 50% Protestant. Yakov has joined the student body, along with a couple of other Prague Jews. 

Salih's first idea: diversifying the speakers and lecturers with people they know. Lorant will use Contacts to find traveling scholars; attract the best of Rudolf's court to instruct the students. 

Suggestion: form Colleges. We talk about Salih's many different ways he could go: philosophy, future history, cultures, geography, economics. Salih says ultimately wants to teach trends in action to determine future outcomes. Statistics, mathematics. Start with abstract: philosophy, then concrete: history, cultures, and then back to the abstract: future history.

Lorant: alchemy, astronomy, fencing, kabbalah/occult, languages, gematria. Wolf Spiro, Gans (Gans at Salih's College?). Holoch (also for Salih's College?)  

Ernst: Warfare. Knowing what's coming. Preparing and mitigating. Military, politics, diplomacy.

Matthieu: we should be purposeful about who we're educating and how. Failing people who we think shouldn't be in charge. Time/Fate? Working the Fate of the students. Ernst: Maybe we shouldn't be kicking them out, sculpt them according to their ability and interests. With Bensalemite technology, this will be a literal Invisible College. We could use it as re-education during the wars. Lorant: Our graduates can send people back. And when the Labyrinth is completed with the wax model, we can get places. And with her heart as a Soul Stone, we can have a domain if anyone Awakens. And since they will have already been through the Labyrinth, there will be no Guardian/Ladder conflict. 

Lorant hires new builders to grow the dormitories, along with Matter magic. Under construction, will be finished in the off-term. (13 - 39)

Scene 2: Spirit Problems

The agenda moves to the spirit problems. S: "Changes in the spirit world affect the real world." M: "So we first encountered the spirits of the dead. Then Veles, who was their enemy. And we said you're progress, we're progress, we're fine. And then there was the summoning to get to Prague quickly." He was materialized and freed. He had been part of that endless cycle in Twilight. E: "I had a grand plan to trick him, but he got away." S: "So now we need to consider the implications of his absence on the dead." M realizes so far, there's been no adverse effect over the past few months due to Veles's absence. 

Ernst thinks about Spirit Court, a way to connect and communicate with them. Use in concert with summoning effect. Does he want to involve the cabal? He doesn't want a lot of the advice; he feels like he has to do this because of the cabal. Also doesn't want to involve them and risk. Ernst asks M how concerned he is about working with the cyanide spirit. M is not concerned (his interest is important), nor is he concerned about the torture demon. E: Why? M: Because he gives me pause, and if he does not give you pause then that concerns me. E: Why should he give me pause? They are here. S: They always have existed. E: But now they are here. S: But you have always overestimated your ability to deal with them. E: But I'm stronger now. You do not have to trust my judgment or power, but none of you have greater power than me in the spirit realm. M: Except for them. E: Maybe. S: That's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about being prepared for any contingency. E: I'm not going to go in blind without preparation. I don't plan to bend them to my will. S: What is your intention? Court, then what? E pauses. E: My first goal is to negotiate to try to fix what I may have wronged in their eyes. S: Then why wouldn't you want our support? E: Because if it goes wrong I don't want to be responsible. S doesn't plan to be there in person. S: I will support you in my own way. E: If I fail in a dramatic, spectacular fashion, you'll be better off dealing with them here than the spirit world. S: I never had any intention. You spoke of us not helping in any way. E: That is not what I meant. When I say you shouldn't be involved, I meant there. We are all involved. S: Exactly. L: Demon possessing Yamna?  We must have a very certain idea what we want out of the Spirit Court.

E: A question to the group: assuming we have to negotiate with the torture demon, what don't we want at this point? What is something that is the best worst-case scenario. L: If you can send him somewhere else, out of Prague, away from the Emperor. E: Get him out of our hair. L: Or if you can compel him to manifest to destroy him. M: A duel arcane for spirits? E: Doesn't know, but an improvised effect. L shared the scene with Matthieu that he is by the Emperor's side. Imperial power. Materializing him and destroying him will not remove him completely. M: How much of a problem is he? L: He's a wildcard. M: Think forward. Can we stave him off with a promise for the future. E wonders if S can send him ahead in time, directly to the war. Train the House to kill him. S: We would need to trap him for an extended period of time. And without Time 5 we can only send him away by days. E posits binding torture demon, M pivots off this to say we can use the beneficial binding to convince Veles the school is where he wants to be. We are also worried about them talking to each other at the Spirit Court. S: The cyanide spirit is too alien. E: It might show up anyway. S: You're not as intimately connected. Let us not forget that many other spirits will be attracted to the court. Depends on where you cast, and what you attach to it. S: We should not look for it, or try to get it. Or deal with it first. E: Ranking in terms of importance? Veles? M: Can we scry? S: The spirit's context is defined by what their nature is. Torture demon is minute. The castle is ancient. Veles is 2000 years old. Cyanide spirit is completely alien. E: I'm approaching it in terms of the torture demon, it's a concept been around for a long time, plus Emperor energy. Number 2 is the cyanide spirit. Veles is a big deal but not causing problems. M: I tend to agree with the fact the torture demon first. First because it will be easiest, second because of the Emperor. The cyanide spirit and I… had an interesting conversation, and… I wasn't ready t at. I am a slow mover, this is my problem. I am interested in it in more than just forcing it into a shape we need. I want to understand it better and then find… points of commonality. I also don't believe direct action against it. S: You want to connect with it. M: It's also part of me. E: Why are we willing to entertain this? S: Because it's personal. Lorant points out the Veles/Perun dichotomy. 

No consensus. (39 - 82)

Scene 3: The Emperor

Spontaneous Ghouling. First time Ernst and Lorant have spoken since Ernst stormed off. Lorant has not given him any more blood. Do we need to cleanse him? He's been showing off his powers in front of Catholic nobles. Stealing money at the Tarock table; he doesn't usually play cards. If this is a bad thing, L says, I will have learned my lesson. S: What does this mean? L: He has knowledge of Obfuscate and wants deeper knowledge. S: What sort of hold do you have on him? L: I have his ear, he'll do whatever I want him to do as long as it is not self-destructive. I'm not looking to crush his will. I want to be able to step in. S: I'm content with the status quo. It's unfortunate, but with what's coming we need that level of influence. E: What if something happens to him? L: He is released. E: It's not transferable? Salih and Ernst have both heard at court: before this month, the Emperor was at sea. Now he's a rock. He's making his own decisions, adding to his inner circle. Making a move to favor the Papacy again. Curt has noticed the change in his attitude. Everyone who matters has made the observation he is acting more resolutely than he has in his entire reign. M: Run down what he knows. L: Lots. M: Maybe he already has a plan. L: Loathe to put all my cards on the table. But he spontaeously… S: Spontaneously? he scoffs. E: It's not like Jiri. He has power over us. M and S: We need to find out what he's thinking about. M: The dream, the torture demon, the bells. All driving him to his decisions. E: We had enough trouble keeping him in line before. M: If the ripples are happening already, we need to act. (82 - 100)

Scene 4: Future History

All S's simulations happened after the Ghouling. S: So this could all be your fault, to L. M: You know better than to say something that simplistic. S: Influence on the Emperor is important because turning his back on his nobility is the starting point for all that is bad. Keeping the Emperor engaged with his nobility, a firm handle on his throne. M: Doesn't this run counter to our purpose when we first came here. S: Yes. That was before I knew what was coming. I liked the previous status quo. As things continue on this path, it will not remain the same. M: I agree. Way more Protestants number-wise than Catholics but as of 5 years Catholics more important. S: The ritual feels like an uprising. So influence on those positions is important. M: I thought you said we couldn't stop it. We should find out the emperor's plan and minimize damage. E: Can't trust it. S: If we stop a Protestant uprisng here, it will pop up somewhere else. There is enough tension as it is. The web is taut. It's going to snap, it's just a matter of when. E: Is it better having it snap now? Can we make it snap sooner. Nos from everyone. L: We want to change the culture. S: At the very least we want to wait until our students are in positions of influence. Ernst continues to ask. S: If it's sooner, there's nothing good about it. E: Giving us time to deal with the aftermath. S: It's not about delaying it, it's preparing. Set it up so the board is prepared for what it is to come. There are no firebreaks now. E: What's fueling your confidence we'll be able to do that? S: I'm not. E: If you're not confident we can stem this, why wouldn't we do it now so we can be the only ones prepared for it. S: We don't want to be standing alone. We want to have as broad a network as possible. We want there to be resistance to the events. M: My goals are more modest, but I want the school and the cabal to be secure, for there to be safety for Mages. A net below the world to catch people. S angers. I cannot comprehend what you think is going about doing nothing. L: Or having it happen sooner. E: You cannot stop it or any guarantees about all our preparations making any difference. Our best option may be to act now. To usher it in. To get it out of the way. S: We have nothing in place! If we trigger it now, we are doomed! E: I see it as a war of ideas and you see it as a war of people. S: It is a war of people. It will be. It is also a war of ideas. E: That's where our conflict is. L: We are trying to affect the ideas so the war is less serious. S: Your idea is to get the war out of the way so we can start the healing process. E: Yes. S: If it starts now it could last for decades, centuries. The effect would be so much worse. E: Would it? S: How did you ever survive war with a mentality like that. How did you ever survive your first battle? E: I'm here aren't I? S: Yu want to rush into battle without any reconaissance or understanding the enemy. M: Are we misunderstanding you? E: I feel like you are taking it too seriously. S: It is going to be a slaughter. E: If it is inevitable, we can work to make it happen now and we are in control, or wait. L: We are not waiting idly. E: If we wait, they have a chance to prepare. M: Ernst, you are saying it is better have a good offense, but what you do not understand is that we do not have a side. There are no moderates. L: Exactly, we are trying to create something worth saving. E: So we are involving ourselves in future conflict without taking any side. M: No. We the Peregrini, the outsiders, are saying that is going to be a conflict. E: Men of reason do not end up on a battlefield. L: Sure they do. M: Who pulls the strings? 

S: The intelligent do not usually get a chance to make choices. They get slaughtered. We want to have control over how it happens. L: We want to prevent a new Dark Age. This could be a new fall of Rome. All our prgress, lost. M: We want to put people of reason in places of power, with Fate. S: We're not trying to stop the war, or side with anyone. We need to control what happens afterwards. E: I understand that, but I feel we may be wishing for a position for ourselves in the future that may not come. S and L accept the risk. S: If we make it happen now, we will absolutely not survive. E concedes he is on board with the end result, but that our methods are at odds. S: Because I want to understand not be at odds, I want us to have a concerted plan of action. What strengths do we possess now? E: Foresight and clarity. M and S disagree. M: What you are suggesting we pull strings on people we don't have, to proceed to a result we don't want. It's asinine. E: We force them to have a fight they're not ready for. L posits that Ernst favors the Catholics. E: No. It is my loyalty to this cabal and to our ideas. L: I am totally at a loss then. E: I will not work against these plans. S: Do you understand our viewpoint? We do not in any way understand yours. OOC arguing. Salih says perhaps now is the time to tell you what I've learned so far. (100 - 124)

Scene 5: Simulations

It always starts in Bohemia, it always starts in Prague. It is the heart of Europe. It rages throughout Germany, because of the proximity of Catholic and Protestant cities. The safest places to be in Europe are: England, the Ottoman Empire, Russia, France, Sweden (involved but not victims). Germany, Bohemia, the Low Countries are the worst off. Interpretations: Salih's is that the latecomers end up being the big winners: Sweden, France, England. In the last years, Sweden and France take away the riches of the center of Europe. Also? It starts off as a religious war but ends as a political one. They all want to take their piece. Salih wonders what the religious aspect is by the end of the war. None of the boundaries change, really. Nobody wins. And nothing is proven or resolved. It's not even a war about ideals, just about pure politics. M asks if the results are changeable? S: Only in tiny little ways; no way to make the changes drastic. M: Did we keep the money in Sweden? S and L are shifty. M says we need to find out what our goals are. What's it like in Sweden now? A backwater. That's why it was so shocking for Makovsky to send his money there. S posits that Makovsky went further than Gans, and figured France and England were too big and established to make a foothold in. Salih wonders if we should try to use the Emperor's household as our goal, to keep the treasures safe. M laughs, says that's kind of his goal. S says we need to support M's Labyrinth. L points it out as the point of our cabal. M wonders if the fall of Rudolf is his death or fall. Ernst, regardless of your position, we cannot trigger this early and stay within our cabal's purpose. S: Other goals... remain at Benatky. We may not want these students to be from Germany and Bohemia. We may want students from England, France and Sweden. M says maybe we should go for second and third sons. L: Make the cosmopolitan, the Grand Tour, spread the web. S: We want it spread so far that wehn the center falls apart, the people at the periphery will survive. L agrees. L asks if E is onboard now. E: I don't agree with what we're doing here, but this has always been a goal, to work together. My point of view is not shared. L: So even after you know it's Rudolf's fall that causes it, you're still wanting to start it early. E makes the distinction between the man and the institution. Should we make him abdicate? E gets pissy. S and L say it's not the person, it's the ideals. E: Can the ideals live on in another man? The Emperor the person now is radically different than the one we started with. S: The ideals are primary. E: Is it the person or the ideal falling in the vision? S: The person. E: I pray the Emperor does not start doing horrible things. S: I believe the Emperor, while different, is not fundamentally different. What happened to you gave me faith in that. Awakening. You are still the person I first met. M nods in assent. There is hugging it out. (124 - 141)

Scene 6: Plans

Blurry Voynich? M: do something with it later. The Invisibility Cloak will need constant power from the Hallow. Tycho and Kepler? Table. Matthieu: Death Gate needs to be made, the physical structures are built. Matthieu has plotted out the best path through Twilight: a 15-minute walk as a ghost. Not instantaneous, not safe, but you'll be invisible and away from mortal eyes during. One-way gate. L jumps in: translate Voynich. Opera to write. Cult text. Cult text and Voynich are separate. L wants to steal the Bensalemite language as his Catholic Cipher. Shadow Cult: parallel to Labyrinth and Benatky. It's Lorant's way to bring people together and salt them away at court. Will L and M confer on this? L needs time and XP. Ernst: get things in order in Prague. With the discussions tonight, E should stick closer to court. Beyond Jiri. Any room to bring in people on his own level? Dismiss the existing ones? Lower them, or make them less credible, or less influential. If they sense their power diminishing, they will notice. Obviously, he would need to be subtle. Ernst holds off for now. L says we should make E our primary watcher of the Emperor. He agrees.

Salih connecting the room in Prague near the clock with Benatky. Ward it. Not technically a sanctum yet. Salih wants to make the clock a Doomsday Clock. The pieces to represent present events. A monitoring board. M mentions wanting to connect to the Venus... her eyes perhaps? Now that S knows what is coming, this is his purpose. Relinquish or maintain? Vulgar. We need this to be perfect, so it may need preparation. M: Get things from them? S: Bring them to me. L: Use the students? M says start with people in Prague. And Michael and Bathory. People we've encountered. Anyone who can act to effect the fate of Europe. All acquainted.

Ward on the room of Potency 15. Salih ponders the best way to do this... in waves, like a bullseye? Start with the cabal and then proceed outwards? No, because they'd be separate spell effects. What about the two-way nature of the sympathetic connection? No Mages. Increase the sympathetic connection because it's too difficult otherwise. Gift of Fortune to bring objects of the people to him over the period of a week and a half or so. (141 - 181)

Scene 7: The Torchbearer

Matthieu and Blahel, in the furnace room. Matthieu inquires as to how everything is. B says not much has changed. M asks if we have the liberty to speak here. They move to B's chambers. Just a servant, so his chambers are modest and buried in the castle. To Matthieu, the space feels a little strange. It's the first time he's been here. Mage sight, Prime. Matthieu analyzes the room. The space is enchanted, there might be some kind of non-Awakened Mind magic. M: May I be straight with you? B: Of course. M: You know I am aware of things beyond that of mortal men. What manner of creature are you? B: I've heard you're a blunt man, doctor, and so I am not surprised. There are certain things I should very wisely keep to myself for fear that things may be aligned against me." M: "I will continue to be frank. I am here because I know some things of the movement of men in the future." B: "Do you. Tell me more." M: "Tell me what manner of creature you are. Your secret is safe with me." B: "I know of a way to make certain of that." The aura changes from Mind to Fate in the room. "You are aware of the binding that happens when one swears a solemn oath?" "Yes." "Then swear one with me, to keep my nature secret from all other beings. And I will tell you what manner of creature I am." M: "I will swear to guard it with my conscious protection." B: "You don't want to be held responsible if you divulge under mind control or duress. That's acceptable. Shall we then swear by the Emperor's name?" M: "If we should, in the swearing, include information I would like to share with you as well." B agrees. M: "As I keep your secret, you will keep mine? And take no direct actions against me or my cabal." B: "You're adding a lot to this oath, not that I ever would want to." M: "I am including you on something very large." B: "So be it." Fate binds them. "As a very young child I was taken into deep caverns underground where... there are communities of gnomes and sylphs and naiads and salamanders. That being of the fire is a brother... no, cousin of mine. I was a human boy when I went into those caverns and when I returned I was something half-elemental. Smoke and fire are my element and medium. I have not been the same since. As far as I know I am the only one of my kind at this court, and I have tried to hide myself... in plain sight."  M: "In some senses that is what this court is all about." B agrees. "So you see Paracelsus was right, the earth is peppered with these elemental spirits, and they are not generated spontaneously. They are made from the children of Adam. They are made from abduction. They are frightening, alien beings who dwell in the center of the earth." M: "Do these equate to the fairy stories of children?" B: "There are many parallels. Ageless beings living underground. All I know of are the elementals. The torments I underwent offer no points of comparison to being lost in Faerie. I think of myself as... being found in a cuckoo's nest. What do you have to tell me?" M: "Initially I came to you because I thought the time may come soon to move the Salamander. To Benatky." B: "I thought the intention was to confound the mortal alchemists." M: "Yes, but not anymore. It is part of a larger web I have been working on for quite some time now. But what I wanted to speak to you about is that we have evidence that the modicum of safety we have been given will be coming to an end soon." B: "Good to know." M: "It will start as a religious conflict and then tear this world apart. As you've been a steadfast ally and kept the salamander so well, I thought it would be right to tell you of this." B: "Who knows?" M: "Not many." B: "Just your cabal or the entire of your kind?" M: "Some." B: "I appreciate this. None of us is immortal, so.... how soon will this happen?" M: "Our understanding is that it can be delayed but not stopped. Years. Our actions now are to establish relative safety; this is why I might need to move the salamander. It would be nice to count you as an ally in this." B assents. "My loyalty is to the Emperor and to the Empire. If you are displaying the same sensible lines, I will join you in this." M: "We are oathbound." B: "I can see that." M: "That's fascinating." B: "As long as the accommodations for the salamander are correct..." M: "I will build them to your specifications." (181 - 203)

Scene 8: Found

Ernst in his office alone. Ludovic out, comes back, cracks the door barely open. "Freiherr?" "Yes." He looks behind him, and then to you. "Forgive me the odd and impertinent nature of this question, but... what is the name of the village you grew up in?" Ernst tells him. Ludovic opens the door wider; he is by himself. "Freiherr, I think there's someone you need to meet." Behind him is a young woman of about... 25 years of age. She is wearing a scarf, has dark skin and wide eyes, and whispers to Ludovic, then looks at Ernst. "You are Ernst of..." Ernst nods. "Mein herr, I believe you are my father." (203 - 205)