DM_Hallu: Ok, so. You've gone to your room and headdesked, what next?

Akavi: Let's see- if I remember correctly, I was a human male in a traveler's outfit.

DM_Hallu: Yes.

Akavi: Processing.....

DM_Hallu: XD

Akavi: In his previous guise, Akavi ought to go to the Lord and ask polite permission to examine his magical facilities.

Akavi: Preferably with some sort of written "OK"

DM_Hallu: He looks surprised since he already gave permission to the group, but affably scrawls out a written letter of permission.

Akavi: Then, Akavi will return to his room and, using the Vestiment of Many Stiles and the monk's robes he has, pulls together an outfit that looks reasonably scholarly.

Akavi: Does the room have any books?

DM_Hallu: Not really, it's kinda like a hotel room. Some charitable organization mighta put a holy book of Pelor in a drawer somewhere, and there's probably a map of town, but that's about it.

Akavi: Meh. Then that's not strictly necessary.

Akavi: In his scholarly robes, Akavi will be a dark-haired elf female, taking pains not to look like Lina, in case all wildlings think colonial races to similar, or somesuch.

DM_Hallu: *nod*

Akavi: And, finally, know arcana 18 or spellcraft 15 to hypothesize about what could have caused such unusual weather.

DM_Hallu: There are several spells that control the weather, mostly available to druids but also to clerics with nature domains and sometimes sorcs and wizards.

Akavi: Would any be useful in either generating power or repelling pests?

DM_Hallu: "Repel Vermin" is a fourth-level bard/cleric/druid spell. Not sure what you mean by "generating power".

Akavi: I dare to stretch the verisimilitude of the world. :) They're in the middle of the jungle running machina- do they use magic to generate electricity, hydroelectric effects, etc. ?

DM_Hallu: The normal practice used in Santhil to power mechanika is the use of a device called an "accumulator"; this is what they were using in the factories that Glru was looking at.

Akavi: Which to Akavi, means, "blah blah blah, boring."

DM_Hallu: It is essentially using magic to generate electricity, although it's really more complicated than that. *still hasn't managed to understand the mechanika section of Shiro's Iron Kingdoms books*

Akavi: Ok, then.

Akavi wanders back to the research area, looking politely confused and waiting until someone approaches her.

DM_Hallu: An otterkin girl approaches you. "Excuse me, can I help you, ma'am?"

Akavi smiles gratefully. "Oh, yes please. Lord Schopler retained me as an independent investigator to look into the recent weather... um, issues. Who should I talk to about that?"

Akavi: ((You know what, make Akavi a half-elf.))

DM_Hallu: (Sure.)

DM_Hallu: "Um, weather issues," says the otterkin, looking vaguely uncomfortable. "Um, you'd want to talk to Mischa, I guess... she's the one in charge. She's over there with the plants."

Akavi smiles again. "Thank you very much." She approaches Mischa and basically repeats what she told the ottergirl, sans the question at the end.

DM_Hallu: "Weather issues?" says Mischa, who is the same leopard woman that Lina was just bothering. "Look, I'm really busy right now, and you're just going to try to ruin my experiments, can it wait?"

Akavi looks horrified and embarrassed, and a little lost. "I... What? Ruin your experiments? I assure you as a researcher myself, I wouldn't even THINK... That is, the Lord just asked me to..."

DM_Hallu: Mischa sighs. "All right, all right. I'm just having a bad day, that's all. What does Lord Schopler want to know that he couldn't ask us himself?"

Akavi recollects herself. "He just asked me to take a look around, and ask a few questions. He thought he should call in an expert in Spellcraft and Arcana who was a third-party, to avoid any unfounded accusations." She looked sheepish.

DM_Hallu: "Oh. All right. Well, what sort of weather issues are you looking into?"

Akavi considers. "Overlooking some mudslides and heavy rainfall, the Lord was concerns about a... um," here she looked a little tentative, in an am-I-getting-this-right? manner "a snowstorm?"

DM_Hallu: Mischa's eyes widen, surprised. "A snowstorm?"

DM_Hallu: You're not sure, but you think you maybe see a little guilt behind the surprise... surprised guilt, but still...

Akavi presses on, albeit in a politely baffled manner. "That's what the Lord said..." She looked around, then drew a little closer to Mischa. "Between you and me, and I might not be supposed to tell you this, some sort of freak snowstorm has gotten those forest elves all riled up. The Lord isn't interested in blame, but if he know where it came from he can placate them."

Akavi stresses that nobody's going to get in trouble for sharing, and that she (Akavi) isn't obliged to reveal the sources in her investigation.

DM_Hallu: Mischa covers her face with her hands. "Oh gods... um... it hasn't snowed *here*, but those elves are a little beyond our - I mean - I didn't think it would get that far..."

Akavi looks solicitously concerned and gently nods for her to continue.

DM_Hallu: "Sometimes we -" says Mischa. "I mean, the other casters and me, we play around a bit. I mean, the duties of caring for the forest don't really use up all your power for the day. And sometimes, you know - well, *you* wouldn't know - but you get in one of those moods where you've had a really good breakfast and you just want to play around... I didn't think it would hurt anything but..."

Akavi nods and smiles quietly. "You'd be surprised- in academy, the other students and I would sometimes us prestidigitation to, um, dirty the pants of professors who were particularly tough on us. Rest assured, it happens to everyone. Can you tell me a little more about the incident?"

Akavi: ((Trussssssssst meeeeeee.....))

DM_Hallu: Mischa nods. "More than one incident, really. We weren't trying to do anything specific, let alone snow. We were just sorta playing with the weather patterns. You know, like... string or something."

Akavi looks intrigued, as a scholar would. "Interesting- what spells were you using?"

DM_Hallu: She names a couple spells you haven't heard of, probably cleric/druid stuff. (translation: lazy plot device)

Akavi: ((You just fear a sorcerer's ability to learn random spells...))

DM_Hallu: (heh)

Akavi: ((If it's okay, I'm retconning some paper into my possession (I'll spend, like, 2 gp or whatever) and taking notes.))

DM_Hallu: (Sure.)

Akavi nods and smiles. "I have to admit, I'm unfamiliar with those spells. I'd love to discuss theory with you sometime. But in the meantime, about how long have you been affecting the weather?"

Akavi: ((Akavi pretends to be Lina, and care))

DM_Hallu: She looks uncertain. "Maybe a year or so I guess... more lately, though..."

Akavi notes this, and makes a mental note to ask the Lord how long the irregular weather complaints have been going on. She switches tracks slightly. "How do you think magical research here could be improved?"

DM_Hallu: She shrugs. "Less humans coming in and trying to cast random spells on my aphid trees, for one thing. Sorry, I guess I'm still cranky about that."

Akavi laughs a little and smiles bemusedly. "My partner in my applied thraumarurgy class was a human- I remember, his transmutations always ended up a little funny. They're a- well, magic is a little odd with them." She looks around casually, then lowers her voice. "I'm not from around here, obviously, but, uh... Why is there such a divide between wildlings and colonials?"

DM_Hallu: "It's the secret to our success, actually. We exploit each resource by playing to its strengths. Good wood is for building, fruit is for eating, Wildlings are for nature, colonists for technology. You would not expect them to live the same, as you would not attempt to eat wood or make houses out of papayas."

Akavi nods. "That makes sense. But where do those wild elves fit into things?"

DM_Hallu: Mischa shakes her head. "They don't. They are not a part of the city. They lived here before the humans came, but not before the Wildlings. Until the attacks started, they had nothing to do with us."

Akavi puts a way her notes (continuing obviously, to pay sharp attention, but to signal that she's now asking out of scholarly curiosity). "Attacks?"

DM_Hallu: Mischa frowns. "Lord Schopler didn't tell you about that? He must have, if he told you the elves are angry about the weather." Akavi: "He said they were angry, yes. But he didn't seems to feel the- need- to tell me that they had actually attacked."

Akavi looks charmingly miffed that she'd been "left out of the loop"

DM_Hallu: "I didn't know it was about the weather, but... for the last month or so, there have been several attacks. Always at night. The wild elves come - it's too dark to see them, but they're so loud. They have never killed anyone, but there have been injuries. Warnings. I can't believe he didn't tell you."

DM_Hallu: (also, looking at the log, he did tell you, but people kind of ignored it - "I am eager to resolve this without any violence if such a thing is possible. However, I should mention that several of our workers were attacked by grugach over the last month or so.")

Akavi: ((Super quick size-up! Is Mischa acting as though she and Akavi are friends?))

Akavi: ((Ok, then.))

DM_Hallu: ("Friends" might be putting it too strong, but you seem to have earned her trust.)

Akavi rolls her eyes slightly. "It might be these." she says, pointing a finger at her stubby, but still pointed, half-elf ears.

DM_Hallu: "Aaah," says Mischa knowledgeably. "Yeah, I get that."

Akavi silently prods Mischa into evaluating the Lord's character.

DM_Hallu: "He means well," she adds after a moment, "it's just, well, the humans get used to being the only colonists, plus with the elves already attacking us, I can see how he might... I mean, not that I think he was right to not tell you, but..."

Akavi waves it away. "No, no, don't worry, it's fine. Well, not fine, but... How does he treat the wildlings?"

DM_Hallu: "He treats us well. Better than some of the other lords who would like to run things here. I've never had a problem with him, but then, I'm a nature priestess. He knows I know more about it than he does, so he lets us do our own thing and we're paid reasonably well. It might be different for the city dwellers and servants. I haven't heard anything too bad about him, though. Some of the other lords have tried funny things, but not him."

Akavi smiles. "Well, that's good to know."

Akavi: ((In your opinion, is there anything else over the past sessions that might have piqued Akavi's interest enough to ask about? I know it's a weird question, but of course I'll still be responsible for RP'ing my way to the point where I can get an answer.))

DM_Hallu: (Nothing springs to mind at the moment, no. You've already found out way more than the characters who were actually there :D )

Akavi: ((Solo adventures are sometimes more efficient, I guess.))

DM_Hallu: (yeah.)

Akavi looks around, then nods. "Well, Mischa, it was a pleasure speaking with you." She leans in. "Don't worry about the weather. If you could maybe hold off on that in the future and spend some energy on pretty illusions, or something, I can just tell the lord that they were magical and that I've addressed the source." She smiled in a friendly manner. "Good?"

DM_Hallu: "Yeah." She smiles gratefully. "Thanks."

Akavi grinned playfully. "And if I see any humans, I'll tell them to stay away!"

DM_Hallu: Mischa grins back. "You do that. Thanks."

Akavi starts to leave, then turns back. "Although- was there a tall, well-dressed male human with them?"

DM_Hallu: She tilts her head, thinking. "I'm not sure... it was mainly a girl, but she brought two very strange Wildlings and a male human with her. They let her do the talking, though... I can't remember if he was well-dressed or not. Why?"

Akavi grins girlishly. "I think I traveled in with him. He's dreamy." With a self deprecating little shrug, she waves and walks away.