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Letter to Ravila, Sept. 5 188x

 

Dear Paul

How go the wars back in Ravila, my brother in cloth? I would that I were back there now, even in the misery of summer. New Babbage has turned out to be an interesting assignment. Maybe too interesting. It is not at all the cushy little teaching position I was expecting. 

Things started well, I was pleased to see how rational people reacted to a grafitti incident on the steps of city hall: a badly drawn pentagram with occult overtones and threatening messages. Brother Rudyard (remember Eli?) and I took a few measurements for something to do, the crowds quickly lost interest in the incident. 

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The natives became restless after a person I had arrested was found murdered in the holding cells. The more I think about it, the more I think the entire affair was orchestrated to frame the Church. The people in Babbage are consumate tinkers. There is a think known as a ‘reality enforcemement device’ that was invented by a local scientist that has become something of a cottage industry. I know not weather they actually work, or if they just make interesting converstaion peices, but there are rumors of persons in town that have actualy been affected by the original artifacts. 

A very enterprising young peddler targeted me as his mark, and was very insistent that I buy his reality enforcer, a small one attached to a shackle. He told me of its supposed powers, which I found dubious, but the claims and his insistence that I had to have it, and being new in town, was so amusing that I gave him a few coins for it. Not a few hour later, While checking on the clean up at city hall, an odd little fellow practically dared me to arrest him. When I asked him where he lived, he got right up in my face and told me he lived in the tunnel that ran under our cathedral. He has an inhuman aspect about him, and as a woman had come forward accusing this person of being a heretic, I put the device I had bought earlier on his neck and carried him to the old holding dungeon under the cathedral myself, saw to his needs then ordered isolation to let him soften up a bit before going further. The next morning he was found dead in his cell with a Mucro dagger sticking out of his back.  (Here I note that Mucro daggers are not difficult to obtain, as they are sometimes found stuck in doors. Very medieval, yes? What on earth are they thinking?)

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How he was found is what is puzzling me. The dwarf’s employer is the local mentalist. He came to the cathedral demanding to see his servant, and Father Pizzaro himself led him down to the cell, against isolation protocol. From the account of the Brother that was on watch, Father Pizzaro asked for the cell to be opened when the mentalist said there was a dagger in the dwarf’s body, in addition to the reality device collar that was still on him. The lighting is poor down there, the Father cannot verify if he actually saw the dagger before rushing to get the door opened. The mentalist as the first to get to the body. Barring any unknown parties, it would appear to me that the mentalist is the one who slipped the knife in his servant’s back and orchestrated the whole thing. But for what purpose? Was the dwarf already dead or unconcious from the collar device I had left on him? 

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The Fathers restricted us to grounds after the incident, and not just the students. All of us. It was very tense. After a few days some new grafitti appeared on the canal near the cathedral that seemed to be in support of the Church. The Fathers took this as  a positive omen and lifted the day curfew, so the students may go out in daylight for now. 

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As you can imagine, I have been repramanded by Father Moonwall, and given the most tedious tasks imaginable to fill every waking moment of my time. I am trying to get out to answer some of the problems posed, especially about the reality enforcers. I will tell you my findings as I discover them.

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yours in brotherhood and service to the Church, 

Dominic

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2 Comments

  1. Skyler Gant Skyler Gant September 5, 2010

    **As Crispin**

    Ah you lot are just a couple of nutters. I stick by me word, come get me ya filthy Magic hating buggers.

  2. Skyler Gant Skyler Gant September 5, 2010

    ((Sorry for the double post. Computer was acting weird.))

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