Log:Proteus and Ember, Scene 5

Proteus and Ember 2016/09/13 	 Night Marshal|Detective Carpenter Ellbeth Aqua Daemon 5

Ellbeth waits a day and then contacts Detective Carpenter to ask if she can examine the amulet.

Carpenter is more than willing to let Ellbeth do so. He checks the amulet out of evidence and takes it to a lab at hte precinct. "What are you hoping to find out?"

Ellbeth rubs her chin with a hand, "What it does. How it does it? Possibly find something of the history of the amulet. Determine if it's a neutral item or influences its users. For a start."

The detective nods, "I'd like to watch, if you don't mind. I'm curious as well."

Ellbeth nods, "Of course. It probably won't be very interesting. I'll be casting an identity spell and also more mundanely searching references and basebases for any mention of the amulet."

Aqua comes along too, curious of the amulet's effects herself. Maybe she just wants to get a better idea of what sort of magic they're dealing with. In whichever case, she isn't tiny and aqua-colored right now, she appears in her much more human form, which is just oddly short with pointed ears.

Ellbeth opens up her laptop and allows Max, her friendly AI, to scan the amulet. He searches online databases far faster than Ellbeth could manage while she thinks back into her own knowledge gleaned from musty old tomes and ancient books.

Daemon is already in the precinct dealing with the business of another case he has. In his opinion the detective work was shoddy and required reworking.

He's just finished with Detective Hernandez when he notices Ellbeth & Aqua walk by.

He thanks the Detective for his notes and stands up to follow the other 2 heroes as they check out the Amulet.

He is wearing a nice black suit and a solid black mask that eoesn't even reveal the skin of his eyelids. His eyes are also covered in a blue-ish lenses obstructing the view of his eyes as well.

As he catches up he says, "Small world eh?" His voice reveals the differently dressed hero as Daemon- the quiet and snide spider all of those present have encountered before.

He watches Max the AI with incredible interest as it does its work.

Listens to Max's smooth broadcaster smooth voice and looks at her laptop screen as Max displays some of the references he's found. She nods in agreement. "Yes, there's evidience of influence from both the Babylonian and Atlantean traditions." She glances back at the amulet, "Of course it could be a modern reproduction. I have to doubt... not the accuracy of your translation, Max, but the accuracy of the claim made. Amplifying power by a factor of sixty is hard to believe." She looks at Detective Carpenter. "With your premission I'll make an attempt to analyze the enchantment."

Carpenter nods, "Please, go ahead."

"'Guess so." Aqua says, smiling towards Daemon. Aqua looks towards Ellbeth. "Sixty times? Wow, there's gotta be some sorta drawback to that thing." Aqua remarks, peering at the artifact.

Ellbeth handles the amulet. "I wonder if it's for sale." she muses to herself. Then she tells the others present, "It's just what it was thought to be. An amplifier of magical effects. Not sixty fold. Nowhere near it. By about a factor of two for someone with weak to moderate talents, reducing to almost no benefit if the effect is already strong."

Aqua momentarily focuses on the amulet, perhaps trying to see its magic power herself. This time, she manages it, and sees the force inside of it. She gives a nod to Ellbeth. "Yeah. About a fifty to a hundred percent power boost, but no where near sixty." Aqua hmms, "I got a bad feeling about this. I mean, that's an entire magnitude off. Maybe this thing was more powerful before?"

Carpenter shrugs, "Does it matter? I mean...sure if it's weaker than it was, that's interesting, but is it dangerous?"

"It just sounds like more magical hyperbole to me." Daemon says as he looks at the amulet.

"Something 'magic' users are always guilty of..." He murmurs to himself as he crosses his arms.

"So why is that a big deal? It's not like the meta-community isn't already filled to excess with wild & unprovable claims." He says.

Ellbeth examines the amulet again, this time not so interested in the what of the enchantment but in the structure of it, looking for any evidence of fading and weakening. "If it was once more powerful... it may become so again. And that would definitely make it dangerous. Well, more accurately, that would make whoever possessed it dangerous."

Ellbeth frowns, "Maybe marketing was as bad then as now. I can't detect any sign of it having been that must more powerful in the past. What do you think, Aqua?"

"Well, if there's nothing that's going to hurt us from trying to use it, what if we did?" Aqua asks, "Maybe it changes if it's actively being used. Though, I dunno, er, that could be a bad idea, too."

Aqua glances at Daemon, and shrugs. "It could very well just be a hyperbole for all we know. I can't tell if it used to be more powerful or not."

Carpenter nods. "That still begs the question: Why did Proteus want it? It's an android, without magical powers. Perhaps it was getting it for Amaryllis?"

Ellbeth says, "That's a possibility, Detective. Or it may have intended to seel it to the highest bidder. Although not as powerful as it claims such an item is still likely to fetch a significant price."

Daemon nods his head now that someone's made it clear why both Aqua and Ellbeth were so worried about this particular bauble.

"Well Hyperbole aside- do we have any evidence this only works on people with 'magical' powers?" He asks.

"That's what it feels like." Aqua says towards Daemon, "The enchantment boosts latent magic power, or at least, that's what I got from it." Aqua looks towards Ellbeth, "You think maybe this could boost really low amounts of magic power by more than just twice as much?"

Ellbeth says, "By my reading of the enchantment that is the case, Daemon."

Ellbeth lifts her hands in uncertaincy. "It's... possible, Aqua. But I haven't detected any indication that is so."

Daemon nods. "Alright- well then that answers that." He says as he pulls up dozens of webpages- all on the 'dark web', hangouts for assassins, thieves, and ne'er-do-wells of all sorts.

He searches through the data while cross-referencing it to the image & description of this amulet. Knowing what it truly does does seem to help this endeavour. Well it narrows down his searches at least.

He traces various users back to a single site- one well known among the criminal element online, but mostly unheard of by law enforcement personnel. He bookmarks the site to use later- but in the few moments he's been looking, he's come up with less than nothing on the amulet.

He stands quietly idle to let those with experience in magic continue their investigation without distraction.

"How does one activate it?" Aqua asks, looking the amulet over. "I can feel the enchantment, but I dunno enough to figure out how one would use it."

Ellbeth shrugs, "I don't think there's any more to glean from the amulet. We now know what it does, and while certainly powerful enough to be sought after, anyone who is dangerous with it is going to be dangerous without it. I'd rather it wasn't out there loose on the streets but I don't see any justification for taking extreme steps to prevent it."

Ellbeth turns to Aqua, "Just wearing it would be sufficient I believe." She glances at Detective Carpenter, "With the detective's permission, why don't you try it, Aqua?"

Carpenter nods, "Sure, if we have a safe way to test it."

Daemon watches Aqua, Ellbeth & the Detective with interest- through his bluish lenses.

He can't resist and says, "So what do you consider safe?" He wonders aloud.

"Huh." Aqua says, "I coulda guessed that. I guess I thought there'd be more to it." Aqua giggles a little, rubbing her head. She looks towards Ellbeth, and nods, "I don't think there's anything dangerous about it, at least, not that I can tell."

Ellbeth nods, "I concur. There's no sentience to it nor any influence component of the enchantment. In other words, it has no direct effect of the user's personality and actions."

Daemon continues his searching of the internet for mentions of this amulet on the Black Market, but finally exhausts his efforts.

With a sigh he says, "Well it's not up for auction- not on the dark web at least. Well no where I could fine. It's a big place, but no one's a better navigator than I am." He leans against the wall to continue listening in until there is an opportunity to provide more assistance.

'I hate magic...' He thinks morosely to himself before chiming in, "Sounds like someone should put it on then."

Ellbeth smiles wryly. "That should not be me." she says. That's all she says but her tone is decisive.

Carpenter looks to Aqua, "Going to give it a try?"

Aqua nods, and takes the amulet. She gives it one last look over as she turns it over a few times in her hands. Then she shrugs and puts it on properly, curious to see what exactly it'll do.

Aqua hmms at the amulet, and tries to conjure up the mist around her. Her skin takes on a slight blue tinge as glowing blue water flows around her body, acting like a second skin that enhances her strength.

As the water flows and channels along her body, the artifact seems to activate. The water ripples briefly, then the volume and intensity of it seem to grow, settling on being about 50% brighter. Aqua moves her arms a little, and huhs. "Wow. Well, I think it works." Aqua says. She focuses on the amulet as it operates, trying to see if there's anything new to gleem from it.

Carpenter watches curiously. "Is that stronger than normal? I have no way of telling." He chuckles.

Aqua nods, "Yeah. It's normally not supposed to get brighter like that. Er, I guess it is kinda hard to tell, but yeah. It's stronger."