A Subject of Keenest Interest

Vanessa hosts a lecture on Precursor Lighthouses

Fellsgard is the foundation of Khy'eras' history and through reconstruction, it is now a vibrant and lively city. People reside here due to mild climate, opportunities, and safety and stability. Adventures often start from Fellsgard. Read more...
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Vanessa LaNore
Character
Seeker of Legends
Level
02
24 / 24 HP
21 / 21 MP
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Race: Fae and Human
Class: Bard and Summoner
Posts: 99
Joined: October 14th, 2019, 3:30 pm
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A Subject of Keenest Interest

Post by Vanessa LaNore »

Vanessa LaNore was trying desperately to temper her own excitement as she moved deeper into the tiled lecture halls. The click of her adventurer's boots did little to suppress her own rising feelings. She’d been called to offer a lecture on her latest findings regarding an ancient building that seemed to point to the precursor of the modern Fellsgard lighthouse.

The discovery had been located on a small island well off the coast, and would have remained an unassuming pile of windswept rocks if her investigation and cross-reference of tomes had not uncovered it’s probable purpose. The work to excavate the site had taken two months of heart crushing setbacks and useless fragments. In the end though, it had all been worth it.

As she neared her destination she was assailed by the vivid memory of the labor crew’s pickaxes opening a passageway that had begun a whirlwind of discoveries. The building, its upper portion collapsed rubble, had an extensive underground element, and the amount of potential artifacts and treasures was near uncountable.

She squashed down her excitement when she reached the door to her assigned lecture hall. She would do her best to entice and excite the rooms inhabitants, but many of the students found her topics terribly boring. They wanted grand and epic tales, or golden hordes kept by dragons, or even to simply remain safely in the walls of Fellsgard. It was rare that a student was interested in ancient artifacts and precursor sites that existed in some far off unknown.

She took one final breath to still herself and adopted her most practiced mask, the knowledgeable instructor. Then with a soft click she opened the door and strode into the room. The seats were packed and she smirked slightly. Ever since the academy had altered the lecture requirements more and more students were vying to attend the more obscure lectures. It counted as core credit, and often the lecturers were simply pleased to have an audience at all.

Vanessa came to rest behind a small desk before a large chalk writing wall. She placed down her leather-bound tome and examined the faces of the room. There was the usual mix of boredom, suppressed lust, curiosity, and legitimate interest.

“Good afternoon students and visitors. I am lecturer Vanessa LaNore. My field encompasses mythical, legendary, and fantastic creatures,” she let the words hang in the air for a moment, enjoying several looks of confusion blended with a smattering of excited faces. “As well as artifacts and precursor discoveries.” Some faces drooped, others brightened, but many simply returned to a neutral boredom.

“Today, we will be discussing a collection of documents, ledgers, manuscripts, and poems that I have begun to refer to as the Lighthouse Collection,” as her words hung in the air she removed and deftly unfolded a massive map. With quick practiced ease she clipped it to the board and collected the pointing stick. “This collection of works spans the entire continent, from the halls of Domrhask to the deep jungles of Ninraih." As she mentioned the places she indicated them on her map. "The documents are equally dispersed in age, from several ages past to just before the Age of Valor.” She looked out over the gather students to collect attention.

“The thing that binds them all is a distinct series of mentions, rumors, and secondary reference to what I, and others in my field, have come to believe are the precursor to the modern Fellsgard lighthouse technologies. So far we’ve investigated two sites. The first was an abject failure, containing nothing but dust and rubble. The second however,” she paused letting the drama and tension build. “Contained an extensive underground tunnel system. Inside these tunnels were damaged but still recoverable documents, books, drawings, and even journals that all pointed to the existence of a lighthouse with complex machinery that harnessed both mechanical and magical means."

There were several grumbles, excited whispers, and even a gasp of disbelief. No matter the general level of interest the mention of magic always attracted a vibrant array of responses. She hoped there were still some students intrigued by her findings. She had another hour to regale them with the initial results and imagery of the discovery before she revealed they had found directions to a third candidate island.
Word count: 723
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Slaine
Character
Meddler
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01
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Re: A Subject of Keenest Interest

Post by Slaine »

All roads led back to Fellsgrad - with time and more than a few setbacks highlighting her lack of road-readiness under her belt Slaine had retreated for the autumn to her home for most of the last century to wallow in the boredom of a gilded cage. She scoured everything, the notes, the books, the haggard lists - so much knowledge about the outside world burdened the sagging shelves of the apartment, littering the desk and floor, and yet none of it had accounted for the common sense required to travel outside of the city. She had been ill-prepared, but not entirely discouraged by her failures, though she hesitated and balked at the idea of setting out once again on her lonesome.

Rarely she opted to leave her home and the magical artifacts she'd ferreted back within the walls, including the battered spellbook of the necromancer slain on the road to Domrhask. The oppressive hostility toward the magically inclined felt like a noose about her neck, one slowly tightening the longer she remained at home. Her fingers itched to thrum the threads of reality, her mind restlessly aching to delve into the chaos of the arcane and it was not simply enough to read, to study anymore. Having tasted the life of a free mage on the road and plied her decades of earnest research it was not enough anymore to simply enchant her household items, she knew that in due time she would need to leave again to truly "feel herself" as it were.

Slaine's dwindling purse of coin inherited from her late guardian, however, brooked more immediate needs and necessities. Small and uninteresting helped, as did ten light fingers. She woke early to attend the morning markets, using the cover and chaos of commerce to conceal her acts of casual theft, taking a bit from here, a bit from there. Bread and fruit found their way into her bag, as did most of a sample tray of honeyed goat cheese while she saved her coin for the less frequented stalls, purchasing a tiny pot of ink and a stack of paper, fresh and off-white, singing her a siren song despite knowing there was plenty at home. After a busy morning of commandeering a late breakfast she strolled the streets, bee-lining for the university lecture halls where shadowing citizens could lurk unabused so long as they minded their manners.

She settled in the back row, carefully arranging her ill-gotten food behind a barricade of legal stationary and set to work fishing out a battered case, inside of it a quill which she set to the side, nibbling from behind her hide. She hadn't a clue what she'd signed up for when she stepped into the hall and eagerly turned to the click of heels on stone after the main rush of attendees had filed in and settled, filling in about her, helping her better blend in. Immediately excitement electrified her as she studied the woman who appeared strangely familiar, a reflection almost of herself but *different*. Slaine wore her fascination openly as she chewed thoughtfully at a bit of cheese and bread, frowning as Vanessa descended to the speaker's podium and board at the head of the lecture hall, squinting at the distance - the woman was so tiny! How could anyone be so tiny, Slaine thought, while practically being swallowed by a crowd of the average Fellsgrad scholar, some weedy, some built, some thick, most taller than she could aspire to be even in a particularly generous pair of heels.

She ate with a restless, ravenous energy, quickly consuming her food as if eager to get it out of her way only to take up the quill which she fidgeted with and thumbed while waiting for the lecture to begin. Hastily she wrote down a scrawled approximation of LaNore's presentation that read more like a profile of how cool Vanessa must have been, their likeness making it easy for Slaine's thoughts to drift toward the daydream fantasies she'd often constructed starring herself, discovering forgotten, magical, and perhaps downright deadly things. Even the admission of failure fed into her idolatry of the other woman as her mind readily and optimistically paralleled it to her own terrible first go.

It was as if someone were showing her a roadmap to somewhere she'd been trying to go for a very long time, leading her to hang impatiently on the woman's every word, now tapping anxiously as the introduction lapsed into a sweep of the room. Tap tap tap - ink spattered the corner of the page, though Slaine did not notice, her pale gaze locked upon Vanessa with burning interest, wiping away crumbs with the heel of her palm in a most unladylike manner, her excitement manifesting in a bouncing leg while mentally willing her to get on with show.
Word count: 809
User avatar
Vanessa LaNore
Character
Seeker of Legends
Level
02
24 / 24 HP
21 / 21 MP
0p / 0g / 0s / 60c
Race: Fae and Human
Class: Bard and Summoner
Posts: 99
Joined: October 14th, 2019, 3:30 pm
Has thanked: 4 times
Been thanked: 8 times

Re: A Subject of Keenest Interest

Post by Vanessa LaNore »

“What is most important about this discovery is not the strong implication that magic was a critical component,” she said, looking seriously across the room, gauging the excitement. There were several noticeably pockets of interested students, and many more still expressing interest or discontent about her assertion of magic being crucial. “No, the most important piece is the clear evidence of a unified group that over decades designed, developed, and distributed this knowledge while working with scattered individuals and enclaves." There was a general murmur around the room. Such a widespread project was clearly unreasonable, particularly given the warring and strife that had only come to an end in recent historical memory.

Many of the students here were far too young to truly understand a world where innovation was not the dominion of Fellsgard and her close lands. Vanessa knew that she would be like them had she not been gifted the chance to speak with tutors and educators who had truly lived in the times before. The history only spoke of the victors, and when given through the lens of humans often excluded many important facts. “I ask you to consider this quietly amongst your peers while I place imagery and renditions of the artifacts, documents, and diagrams we discovered onto the board.”

Vanessa turned away from the suddenly unrestrained raucousness of an entire room filled with academics given free rein to discuss. She worked quickly, unfolding and unrolling a full twenty pieces of work. They had artist’s renditions of a mechanism, the diagrams it contained, and even an extrapolation of the undamaged structure. Beside this were maps showing research locations, runework with notes for possible uses, and examples of the ancient script work used to unify the disparate documents into a single whole. When she’d attached the final piece to the board she turned and held her hand out for several moments.

The room quieted quickly, students latching onto something visual to spin their minds into introspection. “This is only a curated set of the large collection we’ve been able to compile. I will have them up as long as I am able, and you are welcome to view them more closely following the lecture - though I will need to remove them before the next instructor arrives,” she said, smiling around at room, particularly at the students who were eagerly soaking in the imagery. After several more moments of silence Vanessa grabbed her pointing stick and walked to the side of one of the larger renditions.

“This is what we are calling the engine, or core, of the lighthouse. As you can clearly see it is both a gear mounting and transfer apparatus as well as a vessel.” She moved her pointer to points on the image, showing the gear interlocks and the clear signs of containment. “My colleagues and I strongly believe that secondary information shows this vessel would both contain and act as a foci for as self-reinforcing light spell.” There were several shocked gasps, and one angry half-shout. Vanessa ignored them and continued, the writ of allowance from House Nysasha resting comfortably in the breast pocket of her coat. “What makes this particularly interesting, is many modern researchers believe that this spellwork would be impossible without both a vast amount of continuous energy and extremely rare materials.” She looked out at the class with a small smile, pleased to present her own personal discovery, even without accreditation. “And yet, the records and logs we uncovered indicated that hundreds of prototypes and aborted lines of investigation occurred.”

She remembered distinctly the heated arguments and even outright fights that had arisen from this hypothesis. It had all come to a head when she scanned a document no others could open, a tome literally falling to pieces that was discovered in a partially collapsed office. She’d scanned the piece meticulously with magic, destroying it in the process, but also creating a perfect copy that could be resized, transposed, and sorted infinitely. The moment of shocked silence from the theory’s biggest detractor had been particularly sweet when enjoyed over a glass of wine that evening.

“The culmination of all of this knowledge and theory has led us to the final piece for the day, a multi-dimensional crystal projection map, as graciously provided by House Nysasha,” Vanessa said, removing the final piece of her presentation from its protective casing. She placed the small brass device on the table and triggered its mechanism. There was a whirring and flood of heat followed by a series of rapid clicks and silence. Suddenly a large projection sprang into the air. It showed the continent, marked with places of interest and confirmed sites but giving no regard to modern borders.

After several long seconds the projection shifted and bright lines appeared crossing every possible site. Another few seconds and many of the lines became an angry red before fading away. What remained were ten lines of bright green, each crossing multiple confirmed or strongly theorized sites. “Finally students, the true purpose of this lecture,” Vanessa said as a final click zoomed in again to show a pair of islands to the far east of the mainland. One was much larger than the other, but the seemed to be clearly connected by the locus of several lines. “My colleagues and I are arranging an expedition to this location. It is strongly theorized to be a fabrication and testing site, confirmed and mentioned in all other major site records. We are accepting interested researchers, labor team members, and survivalists.”

Vanessa let the words hang in the air as the green lines shined brightly over the smaller island for nearly two minutes. Finally, there was a soft whirr and more clicks before the projection faded completely and the projector went dormant. She sighed softly, annoyed by the limitations of the device, but knowing full well it would not do to display her own abilities inside the city. “With that, my lecture is complete. I will now happily return your time and remain here to field questions as long as I am able.”
Word count: 1021
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