Interlude One: Inquisition at Mount Angel

Session One (9/11/10)

• The Fivefold Vigil awakens in the Mount Angel Abbey, caucus house of the Guardians of the Veil. We were clearly kidnapped, each having vague memories of a sharp chemical odor or food that didn't taste quite right. We're “welcomed” to the abbey by the Infirmerer, who comes in to confirm that none of us are suffering any ill effects from the drugs used on us. He takes us to another room, where Ophelia is being held.
• Ophelia is frightened. While the Guardians have not harmed her, they've been questioning her intently about us and about our mentors, Magnum Opus. The Seers of the Throne attacked Seattle and won. The Guardians say there is evidence of treachery within both the Seattle assembly and the reinforcements sent from Portland. No one knows the current whereabouts of Magnum Opus. Some witnesses say they died as heroes defending Seattle from the Seers; others claim they were traitors aiding the enemy.
• We're taken to see the Abbot, Epopt of the Cenobium cabal. With him are two members of his cabal, the Cantor and the Circuitor, who is the Interfector of Salem; Kramer, a member of the Chancery cabal; and Mathers, the Interfector of Portland and the only face we know.
• The person we thought was Ophelia changes into the Sacrist, another member of the Abbot's cabal. He was posing as Ophelia to spy on us, but luckily, he heard nothing incriminating and told the Abbot so. The Guardians had already questioned Ophelia. They've also asked her to move out of Salem, due to her involvement with mages outside of Salem—namely, us.
• The Abbot is unfailingly polite to us, apologizing at every step for the way we're being treated. But it becomes clear that suspicion has fallen on us and on Magnum Opus in part because of Malachite's previous involvement with the Seers.
• Mathers supports us, saying that the Portland consilium has already thoroughly investigated Malachite's background. He is clearly pissed that the Guardians are doing this to us, instead of allowing Portland to conduct the investigation. Unfortunately, we're in an awkward position, because we've never been officially recognized as a cabal by Portland.
• After our first interrogation, Mathers escorts us back to our room (read: cell). He explains that this inquisition is partly because Stoughton, the Hierarch of Salem has a beef with Agrippa, the Hierarch of Portland. Portland was ruled by the Guardians up until 30 years ago, when Agrippa seized the Rose Seat. Stoughton still thinks that he should have Agrippa's position, and he wants to use Portland's “negligence” regarding Malachite against Agrippa.
• Malachite finds Mathers's vehemence in defending him almost disturbing. He knows he was manipulated by the Seers, but he also knows—or thinks he knows—that he made his own bad choices. But Mathers has examined the blank spaces in Malachite's memory, and Malachite wonders what he saw there that made him so angry.
• Mathers promises to contact Portland about our situation immediately. We settle in for the night, knowing that tomorrow we have to meet with Stoughton and face the examinations the Guardians want to put us through to determine our innocence.
• Eos and Serafina can't sleep, but Autumn and Rasayana do. Malachite doesn't intend to sleep, but finds himself drifting off anyway.
• The sleepers are visited by the Luminous, a spirit who draws us into a shared dreamscape where we each relive a memory in which we committed an act of hubris. We can see each other's memories, up until the pivotal moment when the choice was made. Malachite makes the same choice and wakes up screaming in fury. Autumn and Rasayana make different choices, choosing a more compassionate path. The Luminous then appears to them directly and gives them a cryptic message about “the crown of roses.”
• The Infirmerer shows up shortly after the Luminous leaves. He seems awed by the Luminous's visit. He tells us that it's part of his job to document its appearances and that it only appears when there is some wrong that needs to be righted. Because it came to us, he now believes in our innocence and promises to help us if “things go badly.”
• When Rasayana and Autumn tell the Infirmerer about the Luminous's message, he says that “the crown of roses” is a Guardian phrase that refers to someone who feels unappreciated. The Guardians are trained to look for such weaknesses in the people they want to bend to their cause.
• The next day, after a heated breakfast discussion between Autumn and Serafina, Kramer comes to escort us to our lunch/interrogation with Stoughton and the Abbot. On the way, Kramer apologizes for kidnapping us. Malachite tells him he's a douchebag, but we all say we understand that he was just doing his job. Kramer mutters under his breath that he wished everyone understood that. The comment pings on Rasayana's Sybil's Sight.
• Lunch is a tense affair, and Stoughton makes his belief in our guilt (particularly Malachite's) obvious. It is happily interrupted by the arrival of Agrippa and various representatives of the Pentacle Orders of Portland. Agrippa tells Stoughton that because our cabal was never recognized, we are technically still apprentices, and therefore he cannot hold us. Well, except for Malachite, because he is Apostate.
• Serafina, Rasayana, Autumn, and Eos refuse to leave Malachite. They volunteer to stay and submit to the Guardians' inquisition.
• During all of this, Rasayana continues to get strange feelings about Kramer via his Sybil's Sight. When he finally gets a chance to tell the rest of us, we decide to bring this information to the Infirmerer and to Adder, Sage of the Adamantine Arrow. The Infirmerer confirms our suspicion that Kramer is “the crown of roses” that the Luminous referred to.
• When we get to Kramer's room, we find proof that he is the traitor—his order tool, marked with Seer of the Throne symbols. Eos scries for Kramer and finds that has fled through a portal into an abandoned warehouse full of other portals. But before we can investigate further, the warehouse explodes.
• Upon the discovery of the real traitor, Stoughton is both embarrassed and furious. Kramer was a member of his cabal. He apologizes to us again, genuinely this time, and tells us that he owes us each a favor—a big one.
• And after all that, Mathers tries to recruit Malachite into the Guardians of the Veil!