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ravnica-rpg-resource · 6 years

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The ABOLETH In Ravnica

In this series we will talk about how a monster found in the 5th edition monster manual can be easily inserted into the lore of Ravnica! For this first post we will talk about the ever sinister mind controlling ancient evil the Aboleth!

The Monster?

The Aboleth is a monster from Dungeons & Dragons(MM pg.13) that looks like a twisted aberrant fish, three eyes lined vertically on the front of their face and a mess of tentacles coming from their tail section, these large sized monsters look like something from Lovecraft's nightmares!

First published in the Dungeons and Dragons module “Dwellers of the Forbidden City” where one act as a simple Guardian to the city. In later books they would be given a deep backstory stretching millennia of power, mind control and a deep hatred for the Gods who deposed them.

In the fifth edition monster manual aboleth are described as existing before the gods did, using their powers of mental control to enslave early man to their whims. Their bodies secrete a unique mucus which mutates anywho touch it changing them into water dwelling thralls. To maintain control over their slaves the aboleth uses a host of psychic abilities such as telepathy and a psychic drain that allows them to feed off of me vitality of its servants. Even if they are slain they merely return to the elemental plane of water where they reform ready to return to the material plane to begin their work again!

In the time before the gods they ruled on high, but when the gods came they deposed these tyrants sending them away to the dark depths of the ocean or fleeing into the elemental plane of water. Perfect memories allow them to remember this slight for all eternity and their psychic abilities allow them to instill these memories into their offspring never forgetting what was done to them....waiting for a chance at revenge!

What Colors Would A ABOLETH Be?

In the section I will briefly talked about the magic the Gathering color pie and where I think the monster would fit inside of it.... and this is an easy one its main color would have to be BLUE. Blue is the color of intellect, mind games and psychic ability which can all be used to describe things the aboleth does well. BLUE is also the color of Aquatic Life, this is not 100% of the time true most of the time if you see an aquatic creature in Magic the Gathering it's BLUE. Due to its cruel manipulative and some might say ambitious nature I would say it secondary colors most definitely BLACK, And I'll even go as far as saying that there is a tertiary color in GREEN due to the aboleth’s mutagenic qualities. I doubt you would see an aboleth card outside of BLUE, but these other colors could be options for multicolored cards.

How to Fit the ABOLETH into the Lore?

The first thing we need to think about is their habitat where do these monsters live? Well as far as we are aware Ravnica has no Elemental plane of water and being a plane of existence that has covered every surface in City structure then surely there's no place where these monsters, right? We'll just so happens that the Return to Ravnica block gives us the answer to this problem.

The merfolk of Ravnica were once thought to be extinct when the oceans were covered to create more space for the ever-growing city of Ravnica, but in the Gatecrash set we learn that this is not entirely true. The merfolk lived Millenia underneath of the city in the Lost oceans that were buried by the expansion, when they returned they sank portions of the city creating the Zonots sinkholes that connect the city to the lost oceans. Now there's our key who's to say that the aboleth were not also locked away for this time trapped under the city in the lost oceans.

Now let's talk about that hatred of the Gods, that is a key characteristic of the aboleth how do we use that in Ravnica where the closest thing we have to gods are the Nephilim and the Guild Parun? The Solution, have one of the people that took their power away from them and exiled them to the Sea be the founder of the guildpact itself Azor the first!

To them have this Sphinx is a interloper. The the aboleth were feeding off the war that Azor stopped, when they tried to take revenge against him he used his powerful Hieromancy to banish these loathsome creatures to the abyss of the sea. Over the centuries denizens of Ravnica have forgotten about them, but the aboleth have not forgotten about the slight made against them! When the original guildpact was broken perhaps they found a way back into the city and are back to their old tactics.

ABOLETH and the guilds?

In this section I will try to connect the aboleth with as many of the guilds as I can, in case you want to use them that way. I am just going with the ones that I can make the easiest connection to between the monster and the guild. if you have a different idea of how they could fit into another guild then do that, these are just my opinion.

-HOUSE DIMIR-

Mind control? Telepathy? The ability to use psychic powers to drain others? The Dimir would welcome these ancient fish monstrosity to the arsenal of Agents happily. I imagine a Dimir aboleth would use underground water works that the Dimir call their base of operations to travel the city in secret. in the water surrounding Duskmantle I would not be surprised if a few of these monstrosities were acting as guards. You also have to remember that the aboleth has a intelligence of 18 according to the monster manual these creatures are in no way dumb and are perhaps one of the most intelligent creatures to exist, they would make excellent agents or field Commanders on missions that are located near a large body of water.

-SIMIC COMBINE-

You could also use them as members of the Simic. The Simic have never shied away from mind control, although it is not their focus. The traits that most draw the aboleth in align with the Simic is their connection with the ocean and their ability to cause mutagenic changes with their foul mucus. If you use them as members of the Simic my advice is to decide first if you want your aboleth to be ancient ocean dwellers like the merfolk who Aid and assist them behind the scenes or a Krasis magically infused monstrosity created using the DNA of different creatures. If you go with the ladder my suggestion would be calling it a “Mindslaver Krasis”. If you go with this idea the storyline could revolve around a Krasis being far more intelligent than its creator and using its ability to manipulate the situation to give them more control.

The way I Plan on Using Them!

This last section will be a review of what the concepts that I went over in this post and placing them in a coherent narrative. This will also be the way I plan on depicting them in my Ravnica game if i use them.

“Before the signing of the guildpact when the plane of Ravnica was in constant turmoil and war. the Aboleth already ancient benefited from the constant fighting, for the aboleth this war had led to a golden age for their empire and they were more than happy to watch it continued from afar, unfortunately for them due to the fact that they did not intervene the interloper Azor the First arrive to end the ceaseless War and create a government that in his machinations would forever keep peace.

Angered by the signing of the guildpact and the ending of the war the aboleth struck against Azor and his new fledgling government. What the aboleth did not know was that Azor was a planeswalker and the more powerful Hieromancer then they could ever have imagined. The Great Sphinx drafted a spell into the guildpact that would forever seal the aboleth under the oceans deep into the abyss of the sea where they could cause no harm to him or the government that he forged. Beneath the Sea the aboleth watched as the great city was built as they were forgotten seething with hate for what Azor had built........waiting.

When the guildpact was finally broken many of the spells that Azor had cast that were bound to the guildpact were also shattered,the Hieromancy that bound the aboleth were among those Spells. Freed the aboleth begin their work waiting for their opportunities to enter the city, many of the aboleth made deals with the dimir who being the keeper of Ravnica secrets never truly forgot about the aboleth and knew how useful they could be to their operations. When the merfolk began making the sinkholes that created the Zonots an easy access point was created for the aboleth to enter the city.

the aboleth have not made themselves know to many yet, but those with Keen eyes have beginning connecting the dots and noticing their machinations. The aboleth are patient and want nothing more than to tear down what Azor has built. One of the main ways that they interfere with the city is by supporting anti guilds sentiments of the gateless by invading the minds of the citizenry and poisoning their view of the guilds. Every now and again people go missing near districts close to water, these missing people become New Slaves for the aboleth as time goes on they transform their victims into sea spawn(VGtM pg.189) and deep Scions (VGtM pg.135). If someone manages to kill these monsters they simply turn into water to reform back in the dark abyss of the oceans that spawned them, how can you fight against a creature that is manipulative, patient and inevitable?”

That's my take on the aboleth and when I think you should use them in a Ravnica themed campaign. I decided to lease this content early if you like it shoot me a message and tell me what monster I should do next! On Thursday I will be taking a card and finding a stat block for it stay tuned!

#mtg #ravnica #guildmaster's guide to ravnica #magic the gathering #dungeons and dragons #D&D 5e #The ... In Ravnica #in Ravnica #aboleth #simic combine #house dimir

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mayhemxmugglesxmagic · 4 years

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Headcanon – Draco/Alchemy/ Elemental Magic

Note: Some of this headcanon is was inspired by a conversation with the lovely @holmesdepot, and their amazing headcanon. Credit where credit is due!

Alchemy: General/History

-- Based on this.

Alchemy is a branch of magic and an ancient science concerned with the study of the composition, structure and magical properties of the four basic elements, as well as the transmutation of substances; it is thus intimately connected with Potion-making, chemistry and transformative magic. Alchemy also concerns philosophy -- one interpretation of alchemical literature, which is known to be dominated by mystical and metaphysical speculation, were that the study of Alchemy was symbolic of a spiritual journey, leading the alchemist from ignorance, or base metal, to enlightenment or gold. While Muggles for the most part largely dismiss it as an outdated forerunner of modern chemistry, there are some wizards who actively study and practice it in modern day, and who have held it to be some of the most difficult magic known

Alchemy has been a field of study since antiquity. As the time went on, the lack of common words for chemical concepts and processes, as well as the need for secrecy (presumably to avoid Muggle persecution though it may have also had something to do with cultural feelings towards Alchemy and the growing cultural divide between elemental instinctual magic and more institutionalized conduit based magic) led alchemists to borrow the terms and symbols of biblical and pagan mythology, astrology, and other esoteric fields. This marked a progress in alchemical research, as it allowed the exchange of ideas between alchemists without outside meddling. However, this also ended up making the plainest chemical recipe read like an abstruse magic incantation, probably confusing the learning and spreading of alchemy as a science.

The best known goals of the alchemists were the transformation of common metals into Gold or Silver, the creation of a Panacea (a remedy that would cure all diseases and prolong life indefinitely), and the discovery of a universal solvent. Two of the three primary alchemical goals were achieved by the famed French alchemist Nicolas Flamel sometime in or after the 14th century, with his creation of the Philosopher's Stone and, by extension, the Elixir of Life. Flamel went on to live to the 1990s and to six centuries old, til the destruction of the Stone.

Alchemy: The Elements (Basic)

-- Based on this:

What we know --

EARTH: In alchemy, earth was believed to be primarily dry, and secondarily cold, (as per Aristotle). Beyond those classical attributes, the chemical substance salt, was associated with earth. Earth can represent physical movements and sensations, and it’s associated with the colors green and brown, and the humor black bile. Earth is associated with matter, foundation, manifestation, money, incorporating, employment, touch, empathy, understanding, fertility, security, safety, home, prosperity, and business. Represents stability and physical endurance.

AIR: Aristotle stated that air represented heat and wetness (the wetness is from water vapor, which was thought to be part of air). The air symbol in alchemy can also represent a life-giving force, and it is associated with the colors white and blue. Hippocrates associated air with blood. Air is associated with thought, creativity, knowledge, mental activity, study, speech, intellect, ideas, communication, hearing, travel, messages, eloquence, freedom, discovery, revealing hidden things, and secrets. Represents intelligence and the arts.

FIRE: In alchemy, fire represents emotions such as passion, love, anger, and hate, which are sometimes referred to as “fiery” emotions. Aristotle labeled it as hot and dry, and it is represented by the colors red and orange, as well as the humor yellow bile. Fire is associated with energy, spirituality, passions, light, vitality, health, goals, desires, destiny, sexuality, purification, and sight. Represents courage and daring.

WATER: Aristotle labeled water as cold and wet, and Hippocrates connected it to the body humor phlegm. Additionally, it’s associated with intuition as well as the color blue, and is often linked to the alchemy symbol of mercury (as both are seen as feminine symbols). The Greek philosopher Thales believed water was the first substance created in the world. Water is associated with feelings, happiness, pleasure, love, children, friendship, marriage, family, ancestors, veils, home, taste, dreams, sleep, divination, purification, cleansings, healing, psychic and intuition, and the sub-conscious. Represents emotions and intuition.

(I’ll go into more detail on specific metals, etc later)

Alchemy: Hogwarts

-- Based on this:

What were know --

The sixth-year Potions curriculum at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry covers alchemy and, as such, Libatius Borage's Advanced Potion-Making includes a brief historical and scientific overview of alchemy. According to Horace Slughorn, the preparation of an antidote for a blended poison following Golpalott's Third Law incurs in an almost alchemical process. However, Alchemy itself is an elective subject offered at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and only when there is sufficient demand from sixth and seventh-year students only.

What this could mean --

Ministry regulations on Alchemy and the study of elemental magic due to the unpredictability of it have made learning Alchemy in depth is highly discouraged. As such even when there is an acceptable amount of students who wish to take the course it does not go forward. There are fears of individuals who are able to harness the elements in magic, specifically the element associated with their magical core. It is powerful but unstable in most peoples hands -- and alchemy is a stepping stone toward the understanding of that.

Alchemy: Draco’s research

Draco isn’t interested in eternal life, or a cure for all illness. He’s interested in harnessing the properties of the here and now -- making the most of the time given to him, and the transformative potential of life itself. That's why he's so intrigued by Felix Felicis. While commonly understood to be a luck potion that’s not exactly what it is. It’s a complex potion that aligns the users magical core with the elements and their properties in perfect harmony. People have described being on Felix Felicis as just knowing -- everything goes right. This is because it heightens the users instincts, and their magic pushes them to trust themselves, guides them in the right direction. The potion is little more than an add blocker for the wizards brain -- it removes doubt and creates a direct line from the users magical core to the universe around them.

Most wizards in the modern day have trouble tapping into this part of themselves due to an over reliance on wands, incantations, potions, etc, as well as being told that there is a right way and a wrong way to do magic. But Felix Felicis removes the barrier that’s been built by cultural reliance on things like wands and the idea of proper magic.

Through his research Draco learns of old magic -- magic based on elements and wordless/wandless casting from a time when wizards and witches instinctually knew how to cast and harness the energies around them. Their magic was directly related to their physical and emotional states as well as the stars (birth charts) they were born under. However, this often made magic unstable and unpredictable to those who did not understand or were not powerful enough to user their own magic safely. As such under the guise of creating proper magic -- wands and other tools were slowly normalized while the old ways died out or were removed.

Alchemy came about in the UK during the cultural shift from this more instinctual wandless magic to the strict conduit and incantation based magic of modern wizarding Europe. Alchemy was a way for those who remembered a time when magic was more element based and instinctual to try and make sense of the properties within their magic -- Why does lead interact the way it does with the human spleen? Why is my magic more powerful if I cast while holding tin on a Thursday, but my sisters isn’t? etc. If they could make sense of it, if the could quantitate it then they could harness the elements to do their bidding and justify further research into the link between the elements, the stars, etc, and magic. In modern times however, many witches and wizards find this field of study obsolete or foolish -- much like the way they view divination.

Birth charts, Alchemy, and Old magic: Draco

A wizards or witches birth chart dictates the elements their magic relates to so for example a wizard born under a fire star sign (Seamus such an Aries Finnegan) would find spells using fire, heat, etc easier to use and more powerful than a witch or wizard who was born under a water sign. The witch or wizards dominate star sign also can narrow down the type of accidental magic they may perform as children.

Back to Draco as an example (I’ll post Draco’s birth chart later) Draco’s dominate element is Earth with 37.04% of his birth chart falling under a planet associated with the element of Earth. (It’s important and interesting to note Water (29.63%) and Air (29.63%) are very close while Fire is almost nonexistent (3.7%) And the fact he almost died in a fiendfyre becomes very understandable). As such much of Draco’s accidental magic as a child would be Earth based, such as small manifestations and summonings (a toy he wanted suddenly appearing, or flowers blooming all over his room), or small circles of protection surrounding him when he felt uncertain or afraid.

This also means that things associated with Earth are things that can help him cast stronger and more intuitive spells. That is if he’s able to connect with the elemental core of his magic, and over come the societal and cultural norm of using a conduit. Things associated with Earth are also things he’d find easier to use, and would be more potent in potions and alchemic transmutation for him. For example potions using salt (Associated with Earth) brewed by Draco would be more potent than if they were brewed by someone whose dominate element was fire.

However, due to the close nature of the elements in his brith chart, its safe to say that most magic concerning earth, water, and air Draco would be rather good at instinctually, but wouldn’t be as strong as someone who had a single dominate element. Percentages matter.

#hc: Alchemy and Arsenic (Draco)#[outofmagic: This post got a bit out of hand]#[outofmagic: not sure if it makes sense or if I've just rambled but still here it is]#world building: Alchemy and Arsenic (Draco)#holmesdepot #[A bit like what we were talking about]

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tipsycad147 · 5 years

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Voodoo In The Modern World: A Gris-Gris Love Story

SL Bear

I got my gris-gris bag during a rough time in my life. Even though I was applying to jobs all over town, no one was calling back and my bills were bearing down on me like a freight train. Being low on funds was nothing new, but I’d always been able to find a job before. As my desperation kicked in and I started googling how much kidneys were going for these days, my sister suggested we go downtown to the witch shop. Now, of course, you don’t know my sister but she’s not the kind of person to suggest such a thing. I was intrigued, to say the least.

We pulled up in front of a teeny tiny shop that used to be a teeny tiny house. It seemed to be just big enough for one person to live very cosily with their cat, so pretty much perfect as far as witch shop locations go. Jars filled with dark liquids hung in the window and runes and odd symbols decorated the door and window ledge. Inside, though it was noon and hotter than hell outside, the store was dark and cool. Most of the light came from candles or strings of Christmas lights. Glass jars filled with herbs lined an entire wall. Pendulums hung from the skull of some horned animal and the musty smell of patchouli was everywhere. A hundred different kinds of incense and oils sat near the register, which itself was covered in more symbols and lined with little stones. In the back of the store, a massive altar sat where customers could leave offerings. Cigarettes, little figurines, and even hair were set out on the altar and before it, witches worked silently at a round wooden table: Grinding herbs with a mortar and pestle, mixing things in large ceramic bowls, tying cords around bundles of sage…

In the front of the shop, under the shop’s only window, was a table filled with small baskets of different stones. This is where I headed first. The stones were warm from sitting in the sun and picked up the light like little jewels. Though I didn’t know any correspondences at the time, certain stones drew me in more than others and as I read their carefully handwritten descriptions, I realised I had gathered stones possessing qualities important to me, and stones that seemed designed to help me in my current hopeless state. Jasper for luck, aventurine and pyrite for money… It was so exciting in a way I can’t describe.

Everything about the shop just felt like home, and while other customers came in and gasped at the skull or absently picked up tarot decks and giggled with their friends, nothing about this place felt like a tourist pit stop to me. That’s when I noticed there were other things on the table with the stones: Many small, neatly tied bags.

A piece of decorative paper next to the bags told me they were gris-gris bags, and each one had a specific purpose. They were scented like sachets of potpourri, tied with different coloured strings and seemed to hold sand or very fine powder. There was something else in the bag I held, something solid, and I figured I’d open it up and find out what it was when I got home. A little mystery!

When I was ready to check out, I handed my stones to the owner of the shop and she inspected each one, commented on their colours and patterns, then she looked up and asked me if I was having money troubles.

“Yeah, maybe because I spend it on rocks instead of food,” I said. She didn’t think this was very funny, but any awkwardness evaporated when I handed her the gris-gris bag I’d chosen.

“Hmm,” she said, “do you know how to take care of a gris-gris?”

“You mean you don’t just pop it on the shelf?”

She shook her head quickly and explained that gris-gris bags are like spirits, like friends, and they have to be well taken care of to work for you. You should do things like play your gris-gris music, carry it with you in your pocket, and most importantly, once a week, light some incense as an offering for your gris-gris. She said this with such sincerity, I didn’t even make a stupid joke. In fact, I was almost instantly absorbed by this new information — it played to my nature perfectly. She showed me some incense and I added that to my purchases, and when she bagged my items, she was careful to hand me the gris-gris. Already, this little bag was extra special. It didn’t go in a paper bag; I was to carry it.

I was vigilant about taking care of my gris-gris. I lit the incense exactly as the witch had described. I played music for the gris-gris every Thursday. Eventually, things started to turn around for me and when I began getting calls for interviews, I upped the ante. I added a candle to the weekly ritual and put the stones I’d purchased around the gris-gris. When I got a job, the gris-gris got two or three figurines — like the ones I’d seen on the altar at the witch shop.

Over time, this weekly ritual grew, totally by accident, into my first altar. I’d already read all about gris-gris bags online, but I started reading about sigils, too, and correspondences and then everything else in this wonderful, secret world of witchcraft. As you can imagine, my gris-gris is very precious to me (after all these years, I still have my first and only one!) and without it, this world might have stayed closed to me forever. Not to mention, the gris-gris worked like a charm!

Voodoo Charm

The gris-gris bag traces its origins to West Africa. Born of the influences of Muslim scholars, healers, and mystics, the gris-gris bag was absorbed into African cultures, which shaped and transformed the talisman according to local beliefs and customs. Originally, a gris-gris may have consisted of a folded piece of paper with an inscription from the Quran, written in special ink, with meaningful numbers, words, and symbols in a grid. This piece of paper was folded and tied with string and placed in a leather pouch to be worn on the body or affixed to a meaningful location. Where the gris-gris was worn (neck, waist, or limbs) or placed usually related to the gris-gris’ purpose; protection, health, wealth, and social harmony all required different placement. If, for instance, you wished for someone to fall in love with you, you might wrap your gris-gris in meat and feed it to a female dog.

When slaves were brought from West Africa to the United States, many of their customs were imbued with Christian and West Indian influences as well, particularly with voodoo practitioners in Louisiana. Slaves living in unspeakably cruel bondage turned to voodoo and hoodoo for help in matters of protection, healing, and cursing their masters. Through the years, the gris-gris bags’ contents became more complex, while still adhering to important religious protocol — such as maintaining only a certain number of objects and including objects with specific symbolism (bones, powders, roots, etc), all depending on the gris-gris bag’s intended purpose.

Voodoo blossomed in Louisiana (today hailed as the voodoo capital of America), and New Orleans in particular, and gris-gris bags were (and are still) an important part of the religious practice. A few voodoo practitioners, such as Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, became renowned for their skill and were sought out by a racially diverse clientele. Laveau made a living working hoodoo for clients, including making and selling gris-gris bags as part of her love, luck, and protection spells. Gamblers hedged their bets with gris-gris bags filled with good-luck tokens such as shark’s teeth and dove’s blood.

Those wishing to ‘put a gris-gris bag’ on someone for revenge, or to banish them, were regular visitors. Their bags’ ingredients were thrown at the person or left at their home. Imagine stepping outside and catching a gris-gris bag in the face! You would know the spirits were aligning against you and it was possibly time to make a trip to Madame Laveau’s yourself. If a person really wanted to harm another, Madame Laveau would make a gris-gris bag from a death shroud and fill it with things like one-eyed toads, a rooster’s heart, and a suicide victim’s pinky finger.

How To Make A Gris-Gris: Whoops!

Because I am not an initiated practitioner, I don’t have the knowledge required to pass instructions onto you. It’s not simply a matter of putting corresponding things into a bag, not by a long shot. Many gris-gris tutorials online and gris-gris bags for sale these days are actually mojo bags, which is a similar practice but not, in fact, the same as a traditional gris-gris. When crafting a gris-gris, many things are specifically considered, and practitioners who have this knowledge are also masters in studies like history, cosmology, astrology, numerology, colour symbolism, etc. — all of which is crucial in the assembly of a true gris-gris.

Everything is specially chosen with a reason in mind (even the paper and ink) and those reasons have deep Islamic and African roots. This is knowledge that must be preserved and passed on, but not information most people should take from a random online tutorial. So, it’s important to remember that not just anyone can make a gris-gris, and the history and culture that this tradition belongs to should be shown respect.

https://thetravelingwitch.com/blog/voodoo-in-the-modern-world-a-gris-gris-love-story

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courtneytincher · 5 years

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Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘Madam’ Ghislaine Maxwell Spotted at In-N-Out Burger

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/GettyOn Thursday August 15, the New York Post reported that British socialite—and accused madam of deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein—Ghislaine Maxwell had been spotted at an In-N-Out Burger in Universal City, Los Angeles. She was dining alone with a pet pup by her side, and reading a book titled The Book of Honor: The Secret Lives and Deaths of CIA Operatives. When the Post's source snapped a picture of the raven-haired 57-year-old, he asked, "Are you who I think you are?" She replied, ‘Yes, I am.'”Police have reportedly been scrambling to find Maxwell as she faces a new lawsuit from one victim who alleges the socialite gave “organizational support to Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring” and procured “underage girls for Epstein’s sexual pleasure.”Since Epstein’s apparent jail-cell suicide on Saturday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said their sex-trafficking and conspiracy probe into the multimillionaire’s orbit is ongoing. (In a July court filing, prosecutors said they were investigating “uncharged individuals” in Epstein’s case.)Attorney General William Barr has vowed that authorities are coming for Epstein’s alleged accomplices. “Let me assure you that case will continue on against anyone who was complicit with Epstein," Barr said Monday. “Any co-conspirators should not rest easy. Victims deserve justice and will get it.”Maxwell hasn’t been charged with any crimes in connection to Epstein. And for years, she has denied any wrongdoing, in particular after accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre claimed that Maxwell and Epstein groomed her for sex with Britain’s Prince Andrew. (Buckingham Palace and Andrew also deny that anything improper happened.)Send The Daily Beast a TipEpstein Had His Own Lodge at Interlochen’s Prestigious Arts Camp for KidsBut last Friday, a tranche of unsealed documents in a defamation lawsuit filed by Giuffre spelled out how Maxwell allegedly drove around seeking teen “masseuses” for Epstein to abuse, and how she allegedly participated in the sexual abuse herself and kept a “sex slave” of her own.David Boies, a lawyer for Giuffre and other Epstein victims, said Maxwell should be prosecutors’ next logical focus after Epstein’s demise. “Maxwell is not gonna be able to hide,” Boies predicted. “There’s no place in the civilized world where she can go and not be found. And unlike Epstein, she does not have the massive resources that would be required to carve out a new life in some obscure place where she cannot be extradited from.”“I think it’s interesting to speculate as to where she is. I also think the more important issue is: where do the prosecutors stand in bringing a case and is she cooperating?”It’s unclear if Maxwell has spoken to authorities after Epstein’s arrest. Multiple lawyers of Maxwell’s didn’t return messages seeking comment. Before Maxwell was spotted at In-N-Out Burger, friends had told The Daily Beast that she was lying low in France, where she has been known to stay at Epstein’s residence on Paris’s exclusive Avenue Foch near the Arc de Triomphe. “She isn’t responding to even her closest friends’ calls,” said one person who had tried reaching her in recent weeks. Epstein purchased multiple properties within a building at 22 Avenue Foch for about 1.5 million euros in 2002, and officials in France have called for a police probe into his activities there.Maxwell’s sister Christine also owns property in France.Yet on Wednesday, the Daily Mail reported that Maxwell wasn’t holed up somewhere in Europe—but in the secluded mansion of tech CEO and maritime expert Scott Borgerson in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. The British tabloid snapped photos of Borgerson, 43, walking a dog it claims is Maxwell’s.“She's become a real homebody, rarely ventures out,” a source told the Mail. “She’s the antithesis of the woman who traveled extensively and partied constantly with Epstein.”Tech CEO and maritime expert Scott Borgerson's home in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MassachusettsRealtorOutside the wooded trail to Borgerson’s manse, where dogs were barking, a woman drove by and told a Daily Beast reporter of Maxwell: “Is she still there? They better get her out fast because the town will run her out.”Residents in the downtown Manchester area—less than two miles from Borgerson’s home—did not recognize Maxwell or her boyfriend, and only a few had heard about her connection to Epstein.A 66-year-old resident who has been living in the area since 1993 said he heard the news from a friend, and said he found it “surprising.”“This is not the kind of community that tolerates that crap,” he said.Another woman who asked not to be named said she was horrified to hear people connected to Epstein lived in the area. “I don’t care what political side you’re on ... I have less than zero tolerance. If she’s guilty I don’t want her in my town,” said the 46-year-old attorney, who said she’s worked with women who have been trafficked for sex.“If she’s falsely accused, then it’s horrible. If she’s rightly accused it’s repulsive and disgusting,” the lawyer said.In the city of Boston, where Borgerson owns another property close to the state house and the next to the city's historic park, all was business as usual.The strip of street his property is located on is a quiet area in Beacon Hill—a neighborhood known for its high housing costs and a stone’s throw from the bustling downtown area. Reached by The Daily Beast, Borgerson denied that he was dating Maxwell or that she was staying at his $3 million home. “Ghislaine is not at my house. She’s a friend—former friend. Not true,” Borgerson said, adding that he was about to board a plane and would call police in light of the Mail’s report to protect his house and his family.“The police are coming to my house,” he said. “No one’s home except my cat.”In a text message to a Daily Beast reporter, Borgerson added, “Hi, I’m traveling abroad for business. Ghislaine Maxwell is not at my home and I don’t know where she is. I’m passionate about ocean policy and wish people were as interested in Jones Act reform, joining the law of the sea, and funding icebreakers.”Borgerson was listed as a “director” of Maxwell’s ocean nonprofit, the TerraMar Project, in 2013 tax filings. That year, Maxwell and Borgerson both attended the Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavík. While Maxwell was representing TerraMar, Borgerson was there as CEO of CargoMetrics, a Boston-based firm that “delivers transformative quantitative investing and maritime shipping solutions, anchored in its proprietary platform that tracks all seaborne cargoes and vessels,” according to one press release.In 2014, a United Nations event featured Maxwell as a speaker. According to her bio in the program, Maxwell’s “web-based non-profit” aimed “to protect the Oceans by empowering a global community of ocean citizens.” It further described Maxwell as “a private helicopter pilot and an Emergency Medical Technician and a qualified ROV and Deepworker submarine pilot.”A former Coast Guard officer, Borgerson was also a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, which featured Borgerson and Maxwell as speakers during one 2014 talk titled “Governing the Ocean Commons: Growing Challenges, New Approaches.” Friends of Maxwell, according to The New York Times, said Borgerson became her boyfriend. Maxwell had allegedly described Borgerson as a “Navy SEAL” to her pals.Maxwell’s dubious charity also roped in the Clinton Global Initiative, the now-defunct networking platform for the Clinton Foundation. In the fall of 2013, CGI named TerraMar as one of the “commitments to action” at their annual meeting. A close-up of Ghislaine Maxwell's residence in LondonGoogle MapsIndeed, Maxwell was tied to the Clintons for years and attended Chelsea's wedding in 2010. She's also flown on President Trump's private jet, according to Politico, which reported Maxwell helped get Epstein access to Trumpworld, including parties at Mar-a-Lago.A blurb on the Clinton Foundation’s website announced TerraMar would launch the Sustainable Oceans Alliance “to mobilize the international community and the public at large on the importance of the Oceans and the Seas and to ensure that the 193 UN Member States recognize and incorporate oceans in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to be adopted in 2015.”While TerraMar’s website listed modelling mogul Paolo Zampolli as a member of the Alliance, Zampolli recently told Politico he didn’t know Maxwell was involved. Zampolli said he remembered the late diplomat Stuart Beck, a former director of TerraMar, brought Maxwell to the United Nations twice to discuss her ocean activism. Zampolli reiterated this in an interview with The Daily Beast.“She came to the United Nations twice to meet with me. She had a very creative idea about the oceans,” Zampolli told one Daily Beast scribe. “She wanted to create awareness and give free passports to the ocean. Oceans are so big. Her idea wasn’t aligned with the charter of the U.N.”“She was very active and knowledgeable about the oceans,” he added. “I learnt after the meetings the Clinton foundation was funding her. She did not give us money. It was not a United Nations idea. It was a virtual passport. It’s like getting a piece of ice from an eskimo. It would be like getting a passport for an ice cube.”Shortly after Epstein’s arrest, TerraMar disabled its website and the New York Post reported that the feds were probing the charity over its potential connection to Epstein.“The TerraMar Project is sad to announce that it will cease all operations,” a message on the group’s defunct site reads. “The web site will be closed. TerraMar’s mission has always been to connect ocean lovers to positive actions, highlight science, and bring conscious change to how to people from across the globe can live, work and enjoy the ocean.”Before Maxwell surfaced, speculation ran wild as to where she might be. Those close to her pointed to one of her relatives’ properties in France.A property in southern France that belongs to Maxwell's sister ChristineDana Kennedy for The Daily BeastMaxwell was born in Maisons-Laffitte, in the Paris suburbs, to a French mother (Holocaust researcher Elisabeth “Betty” Maxwell) and a Czech-born father, the notorious publishing mogul Robert Maxwell who died mysteriously after falling from his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, after he’d plundered hundreds of millions from his Daily Mirror employees’ pension fund. She and several of her six surviving siblings—as well as her late mother, who died in 2013—had homes in various small towns in the south of France. Her older sister, Christine Malina-Maxwell, has a home in Meyreuil, a semi-rural village about 8 miles from Aix-en-Provence. Nobody was home at the walled-in villa when The Daily Beast rang the gate buzzer Wednesday. Most of the surrounding estates seemed empty. A neighbor directly across the way had a strange reaction when asked if he knew the Malinas or Ghislaine Maxwell. He seemed to confirm that a man with the last name Malina lived there but said he’d never heard of Ghislaine Maxwell. But as the reporter was leaving, he started laughing and said, “Maybe they’re all there.”Meanwhile, there was no answer at Maxwell’s townhouse on Kinnerton Street in London's Belgravia district. A gaggle of press shutterbugs told a Daily Beast reporter they’ve seen no signs of life at the home over the last two or three weeks.Neighbors say the house, which had fresh flowers in its window boxes, hasn’t appeared lived-in for a while. “I’ve only seen someone go in and out a couple of times and my first thought was that it was maybe a cleaner,” said one resident who has lived on the street since last year. “It’s not really the kind of street where everyone talks to each other. It’s actually been quite nice having all you lot (journalists) around because there’s been someone to talk to.”Another neighbor said she didn’t recognize Maxwell’s name and said of the townhouse, “I have no idea who lives there. A few of us know each other on the street but I don’t know who lives at that house.”Ghislaine Maxwell's residence in LondonJamie Ross for The Daily BeastAccording to public records, the property hasn’t been sold since 1997. The windows of the home appear to match those in the infamous photo of Prince Andrew with his arm around the bare midriff of Virginia Roberts, now Virginia Giuffre, as Maxwell smiles behind them. In a 2015 court declaration, Giuffre stated, “One day when I was in London (specifically in a townhouse that is under Maxwell’s name), I got news from Maxwell that I would be meeting a prince. Later that day, Epstein told me I was meeting a ‘major prince.’ Epstein told me ‘to exceed’ everything I had been taught.”“He emphasized that whatever Prince Andrew wanted, I was to make sure he got,” Giuffre added. “Eventually Prince Andrew arrived, along with his security guards. The guards then went out of the house and stayed out front in their car. It was just Epstein, Maxwell, and me inside alone with Andy.”Maxwell’s name is also connected to a cottage in Salisbury, records show, for her company Ellmax. In 2015, the Daily Mail reported the home was occupied by Maxwell’s old friend, Catherine Vaughan Edwards. (Katie Vaughan Edwards was listed as a “director” of TerraMar in 2012 tax records.) The New York Post, which revealed Maxwell posed for racy photos in the 1990s wearing an American flag bikini, reported that the British heiress was last spotted on Manhattan’s social scene in October 2016. One fellow socialite told the Post, “What’s crazy—now—is that other women liked her and really thought she was a ‘girl’s girl.’ The friend added, “I would see her at parties and she seemed perfectly lovely—but then I would hear these stories about her.”Wherever Maxwell is, she’s surely heard the news of Jeffrey Epstein’s demise. The two were entwined romantically, financially—and, some say, criminally—for years.According to one unsealed deposition, Epstein’s former house manager in Palm Beach, Juan Alessi, said Maxwell “became the supervisor not only for this house, but for all the homes” when Epstein was absent. Alessi said more than 100 girls came to Epstein’s mansion during his employment, and that he cleaned and returned sex toys to Maxwell’s closet.Asked who went out looking for girls, Alessi said, “Ms. Maxwell, Mr. Epstein and their friends, because their friends relayed to other friends they knew a massage therapist and they would send to the house. So it was referrals.”A butler for Epstein’s ex-girlfriend, Eva Andersson-Dubin, detailed one occasion where Maxwell, Epstein, and an unnamed 15-year-old girl from Sweden, entered the home Dubin shares with her husband Glenn, a billionaire hedge-funder. The employee, Rinaldo Rizzo, testified that Eva brought the girl into the kitchen and left. The teen, who was distraught, told Rizzo she was Epstein’s personal assistant. She then burst into tears, claiming she was on Epstein’s island with Maxwell and Epstein’s ex-assistant, co-conspirator Sarah Kellen. The trio had asked her for sex, and she said no.According to Rizzo, the girl didn’t know how she got to the Dubins’ residence from the island and claimed Kellen snatched her passport and phone and handed them to Maxwell. The girl then allegedly told Rizzo, “I was threatened by Ghislaine not to discuss this.”55 Court Street in BostonHandoutGiuffre claimed in a deposition that Maxwell had sex with underage girls every day Giuffre was around her—and that Maxwell directed her to have sex with Glenn Dubin, Prince Andrew, former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, MIT mathematician Marvin Minsky, former Senator George Mitchell, model scout Jean-Luc Brunel, and the owner of a large hotel chain. (The men have denied her claims.)“Glenn and Eva Dubin are outraged by the allegations against them in the unsealed court records and categorically reject them," said a spokesperson for the couple.“You know, I was told to do something by these people constantly, told to—my whole life revolved around just pleasing these men and keeping Ghislaine and Jeffrey happy,” Giuffre testified. “Their whole entire lives revolved around sex.”Giuffre’s defamation suit against Maxwell, filed in 2015, described the socialite as a “primary co-conspirator” who was granted immunity via Epstein’s 2007 plea agreement. This week, attorneys for Epstein’s victims suing the government asked a judge to rescind the deal’s provisions that protected Epstein’s accomplices, stating, “It would be unfair to the victims if Epstein not only managed to cheat justice through his death, but also left behind some kind of legal issue preventing the victims from obtaining the rescission remedy to which they are plainly entitled.” As part of the shady non-prosecution agreement, the feds agreed not to charge “any potential co-conspirators of Epstein, including but not limited to Sarah Kellen, Adriana Ross, Lesley Groff, or Nadia Marcinkova.”While Maxwell wasn’t explicitly named, she’s long been at the center of the Epstein controversy as his girlfriend-turned-majordomo and recruiter of his minor victims. And now that Epstein is dead, all eyes are on Maxwell as the keeper of his secrets.The government will have access to the full, unredacted evidentiary record in the case Giuffre brought against Maxwell, Boies said. “In my view, it is very unlikely that Maxwell will escape prosecution,” Boies said. “If that’s right, she would have an enormous incentive to see if she could do a deal.”He added, “It would be a lot better for her to cooperate as opposed to fight it, because somebody’s going to cooperate. There are too many people with knowledge. There are too many people involved in the criminal enterprise. Somebody’s going to cooperate, and in that context, if you’re somebody in Maxwell’s position, you want to be sure you’re in as early as possible.”Barbara McQuade, the former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, said Maxwell could remain as the most egregious offender in Epstein’s case.“I would imagine if I were a prosecutor or an investigator in the Epstein case, I would be considering her a subject of the investigation,” said McQuade, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School. “People are usually subjects, witnesses or targets. You gather evidence about people.”“Just what we know from the press, there’s some complicity there,” McQuade added.McQuade said that if Maxwell were charged, the complaint would likely be filed under seal. And that the FBI has offices across the world to work with foreign agencies to find her—if Maxwell is hiding from authorities. “She is an intriguing figure here,” McQuade told The Daily Beast. “It could be that investigators have already talked to her and are not making that known that she’s cooperating. Or it could be that she is under investigation herself. She even could have been indicted under seal.”Based on the allegations brought by victims to the media, Maxwell could face charges for being co-conspirator of Epstein, McQuade said. One of the child sex-trafficking charges in Epstein’s indictment, 18 U.S.C. 1591, refers to recruiting and enticing minors. “She herself could be liable as a principal even if she was not engaged in any sex acts with the girls,” McQuade said.— Additional reporting by Adam Rawnsley and Blake MontgomeryRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. 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