Vial of Snow

## Description

**Alma Thompson****:** *A vial of snow, obtained during the Spider Pathway during Event #004. Although the sample was of frost spiders upon collection, the once-spiders seem to have dissolved into a thin, powdery, green-blue snow overnight. It might be related to the Blue-Green Wood.*

**Meloa Ruicott****:** *A vial of snow, obtained during a walk through the forest from a crumbled bird. It is incredibly similar to the sample Alma has collected already.*

**Cade Moriarty****:** *A vial of snow, obtained from a walk through the forest from a crumbled tree. It lacks the blue-green tint of Alma and Meloa's samples. Instead, Cade's seems to contain portions of the blackened ice from the trees, which makes the snow appear black.*

## Quest Chain

Alma Thompson, while investigating the caverns of the labyrinth during Event #004, comes across a pathway of the same frost spiders that seem to have invaded the school building. She uses a Glass Vial to collect some of the spiders for further analysis.

Within hours of having been collected, the frost spiders begin to melt, even when left in cold temperature. They change color - from white - to a... *familiar*... hue of green and blue. It's terribly odd, that no matter what is done to this snow, it does not seem to melt. It seems to have *flecks* in it. A sort of rock, perhaps.

 **Counter Librarian Cost:** £3

If Lamont D'Reichier inspects the snow, he'll notice it has a similar mineral deposit as Meloa Ruicott's Vial of Frost. But he has no idea where it could have come from - only that oddly, it seems to have high *salt content*. A bit strange for snow, to say the least!

Why saltwater? Though it's true that the island is surrounded by ocean, it's well-known that salt would change the freezing point of the snow, but- it really doesn't seem to change the physical state of the vial at all. Strange.

### Alma, Freisse, Lamont, and Meloa; January 9, 2017

Alma Thompson shows her vial of snow to Lamont D'Reichier while he inspects Meloa Ruicott's Vial of Frost. He feels no magical presence when the vial is shut - but when he opens it, he feels a strange force emenating from it. Although it behaves like snow, it seems to have a mineral with magical properties contained inside. After some inspection, he realizes that it seems to be *salt*.

 **Counter Librarian Cost:** £1

If the snow is shown to a character with good knowledge of minerals - for example, Basil Payne, Christoph Payne, or Monday Lamb - they'll be able to identify this salt as *sea salt*... and certainly not the store variety, either! It seems to be quite rough and raw, and imbued with residual arcane magic: meaning that it might have come in contact with a powerful entity at some point in time. Even more curious are the blue-green flecks - which don't seem to be a mineral at all! In fact, they seem to be *petrified wood*?

There are plenty of powerful entities associated with the sea. But are there any associated with creatures similar to the frost spiders? Perhaps this is the information necessary to connect the dots! - perhaps nobody has found information on the spiders, because they have been looking for it under spider-related entities instead?

Time to do some digging.

*If the characters choose to examine the salt underneath the microscope without external help instead, they will need to spend two roleplays in the library - at least twelve good-length posts each - to gain enough background information to analyze the salt in the lab. After this, they'll need a third roleplay of the same length to analyze the salt with their newly-learned knowledge. Complete this prompt and submit your log to the Update Spreadsheet to receive another.*

### Alma and Meloa; January 21, 2017

Alma and Meloa Ruicott examine the **Vial of Snow** and Vial of Frost underneath the microscope together. They identify *some kinds of organisms* in the Vial of Frost-- but they're fully unsure what might be in the Vial of Snow. Rather, they simply find some curious rock structures in Alma's Vial of Snow instead. She draws a picture for reference.

Perhaps Basil Payne will know what these are?

 **Counter Librarian Cost:** £1

*Information about the rock structure has been relayed to Sarah. Please schedule a roleplay with Basil when she's available!*

### Meloa; February 5, 2017

Meloa brings her vial to Basil Payne, hoping that he might be able to identify the substance in it. He identifies it as sea salt, and keeps it to compare against Alma's. He does tell her that the salt formation he sees in the microscope is a little different from the norm though... and that he's seen it once before in a 200-year-old fossil from Sherwood Forest, after entities had turned the forest to stone.

Should Meloa or Alma revisit him, he'll tell them that the two samples are in fact *virtually identical*... which is a little bit frightening, considering that Meloa's sample came from a crumbled dead bird, and Alma's came from a dead Scuttlespore Slug.

What *are* these spiders, if they have the power to turn a living creature to something indistinguishable from snow with a salt deposit? The prospect is very frightening. She's heard rumors around the school that the fae have all but disappeared from the forest. *Where have they gone*? Given the results of her investigation of the snow, she might feel their chances aren't very good.

### Alma; February 10, 2017

Alma brings her vial to Basil Payne, who relays the same information to her: the salt deposit in Alma's snow is similar to a fossil extracted from the forest of Robin Hood and his Merry Men. That's so far away! And a 200 year-old fossil, too! He advises her to check textbooks for proper photos: after all, the fossil is quite famous. It should be well-documented.

Time to hit the books!

 **Counter Librarian Cost:** £2

*You can choose to either schedule a roleplay with the counter librarian or ask for a prompt to be provided via Melody - contact Thumper over Skype to choose which option you'd prefer!*