Talk:Fernande Saussure

Ferne's Library

• Reinterpreting Astrophysics in the light of Voyager 5
• The Astrological Observations of the Great Civilizations of Mars. (A Translation into French, by Lefebre.)

Loot

• knives
• swords
• key
• seal
• doll's house
• Chinese scroll
• book scans
• blueprints
• umbral journal

Detailed Loot

Doll's House
Takes on the form of and links itself to the building that it's in. Doors, windows and objects inside move as in the dolls house.

Swords
Appear Very Sharp. Chinese manufacture. They are engraved in ancient Chinese, each with a different personal name.

Knife
Appears Weightless/Inertialess. Passes easily through non-living matter.

Chinese Book
Reports various Dragon Mage Martial Arts

Book of demonic art
A book of paintings from artistic hells and paintings inspired by demons. Disturbing but beautiful. Many pages contain enochian descriptions worked into the paintings.

The Complete Guide to Onyx
A fairly recent book about the magical properties of Onyx. It mentions possible uses for it to drain off paradox.

Ancient Scroll
Various Indian Akashic Martial Arts moves

Dark Practices of Scotland
Describes various strange practices of the Pagan Scots, allegedly by a Roman traveller, including blood sacrifices and the summoning of Sea Monsters

Vampire Diary
Diaries of a Sabbat spy in 19th century England. Embaressingly lewd, but many details about the Sabbat.

French Explorer Diaries
Detail the travels of a French Explorer through other worlds, and his confrontation with foreign tribes of "many dispersed pieces."

Machine Code
Appears to be one part difference engine one part space vehicle, one part locomotive. Electromechanical.

Grey Prayer Book:
Actually a series of Umbral Charts encoded into Latin Giberish.

Silver Key
Not actually silver, some unknown metal. Very complicated head.

Seal
Appears to be medieval Catholic. An extremely complicated emboss suggests some kind of security official or spy.

Sabbat Staff
-2 difficulty on certain long rituals

Samothracian Mask
Arete 4. 2 bonus defences per round. If incapacitated, can be discarded to allow the wearer to escape.

Samothracian Beacon
A beacon that links to their home base. Carefully shut down and sealed.

Fundamentals

The universe is a logical object apprehensible to reason. This system can be manipulated by means of language, systems of signs standing for objects, principles and operations. One such system, or set of systems, is that developed by the Hermetics and their predecessors in ages past. Another such system is that developed by the Virtual Adepts in more recent years.

The Universe

What is the nature of the universe? The 'Demonologists' among the Virtual Adepts hold that it is almost certain that the universe accessible to us is a simulation running on some highly advanced alien computer. The Hermetics hold that the material world is a mirror of the immaterial world, and vice versa. These two positions are not entirely distinct. A simulation maps a material system onto an immaterial one, and through studying the immaterial reveals the nature of the material. This mapping is a language. The universe is a nexus of systems mapping one onto the other through the system of signs.

The Magus

What is the operator of these systems? It is not an godlike alien intelligence as the Demonologists assume, in whose mind we exist as passive objects. Perception itself is another linguistic map, but we can only account for consciousness of perceptions by postulating a transcendental I, or will, which exists, and is the precondition for the existence of the sign systems that constitute mundane reality. The supposed alien intelligence is thus revealed to be the magus herself.

The challenge of the magus is to comprehend and so manipulate the sign systems and thus, the universe and thus, herself. Then she will have achieved a divine self-knowledge, and be able to make true decisions as a free agent.

Idol House

4F

• Converted attic space (uncle's old stuff)

3F

• Guest room (mothballed)
• Misaka's room
• Bathroom
• Balcony (2F roof)

2F

• Gallery
• Server room
• Library

1F

• Master bedroom
• Study
• Bathroom
• Library

0F

• Library
• Sitting room
• Dining room
• Kitchen & laundry

B1

• Pantry
• Library
• Ritual chamber

B2

• Storage
• Node

Fernande's Notebook

Zero Hour

• Shadows of minds appear in it. Anabelle said they looked like detached auras.
  • Most of them are pretty grim. See the heavy hand of the technocracy.
  • But they are also fighting the british technocrats here. The technocracy will be destroyed by its own hubris.
  • Can they be used to gather intelligence? Power? Do work in the zero hour?
• Why did we not get caught in the time stop effect?
  • Looks like the house, maybe because the beacon is here
  • Is there anyone else who isn't caught?
• If they have time stop towers built all across britain that's real bad
  • Maybe we can shut it down
  • Like with a dox backlash or something

Rubber Suit Plan

• Britocrats are up to something with the new Who series.
  • Looks like they're trying to bring the samothracians toward consensus by a grand act of Blatancy
  • Can we disrupt production somehow? Change the script plans?
• I get kind of bloodthirsty when I'm drunk. That's not good. Is it?
• Looks like the plan triggers in thirty days. The monoliths will translate the aliens into symbols suitable for us. Then they will go to work under cover of blatancy.
  • But I have access to the transmission. I can stop, hijack or corrupt it.
• I want one of those translation monoliths.

The Samothracian

• Unusual entity encountered in V. bookshop.
• Named 'samothracian' for book it was reading.

Physiology

• Entity composed of several airgapped segments. Aggregate shape roughly humanoid. Other configurations possible?
• Blue flesh consistency of plasticine. Ivory-esque adornments attached with some form of adhesive.
• Segments have internal organs - close examination will require a specialist.
• Nervous system attached to computer system and treated with ElooP objective semantic ping tests. Segments have high-bandwidth connections with one another.
  • Transmitter codec reminiscent of vocal/auditory systems, but utilises direct corresponding connectors.
    • So their internal communication is based on speech, like ours, but has passed beyond crude sound. They are more like us than is at first apparent - systems bound together by symbology and soundless words. If we meet one again I will attempt to communicate on this principle. So much for 'aliens'.
  • Some evidence of quantum teleportation links between circulatory systems.
• Questions of whether creature is natively physical or a manifested umbrood remain.

Behaviour

• Entity causing trouble in bookshop prior to our arrival. Obtain details later.
• Entity docile on sighting but initiated unprovoked violence upon approach. Knew of our intentions?
• Despite number of segments, no indication that more than one subjective viewpoint exists.

NB

• Proximate spatial anomaly (see 'Daqin'). Daqin native?
• Possible connection to RTU?
• Something to do with the weather - bad news if so.
• Uncle recalls deep umbral reports - see RTU
• If RTU is back, does she know who I am?
• New maid v. useful. Good food, clean & tidy house, also still alive. Continue employment.

Vampires

• Don't take rides with strange men.
• Make sure I'm practiced at traditional verbal and somatic magic, this might happen anytime.
• Vampires are dangerous. I must be able to defend myself.
• Need to get Misaka a proper phone, that one is disgraceful.
• The gauntlet is eroding. Probably something to do with the Samothracians. Worrying. And what are the technos doing about it?
• Anabelle is somewhat annoying but may be highly useful. She has immunity to paradox, connections, and so on.
  • I need to find out what she does for makeup.
  • I didn't know vamp bites were like THAT.
  • My magic seems a bit stiff on her, I should try to find out why.