Where Fiona gets her groove on.
((Does Winter of '23 work? That's the season after she (hopefully) invents her Enhanced Curse of Circe, which she devised specifically to work on Giants.))
((Works for me, are you planning to take Marcus along, too? I should really look to advancing him.))
((If he's still around, and wants to go. She will put out feelers to see who wants to go, but won't tell anyone what to expect on the other side, aside from danger. Doesn't want word getting out that she's trying to recruite Diedne.))
"Certainly, Fiona, I'd be happy to come with you. Do you think the Blacksmith will help me out with my legs again?"
[color=blue]"I don't see why not. He is quite gifted," Fiona says as she wonders (not for the first time) just what he is.
((Hoping to get more people along than just Fiona, Marcus, and their shield grogs. Say, give it 'til Monday and then take off regardless?))
Fiona and Marcus make their way into the Magic Realm. When they arrive, however, everything is dark (not pitch black) a quick search for the Blacksmith doesn't find him. Marcus and Fiona both see signs of a battle, both magical and mundane, the door out to the giant realm appears to have burned down.
[color=blue]"This isn't good," Fiona says softly as she looks around, then starts to do a little more through search of the place.
((Can she tell how long ago the battle happened, how many attackers, whether there's any blood shed, what have you? Per 0 + Awareness (Searching) 4 + die roll of 7 = 11.))
No, but as Fiona is searching for clues, so is Marcus, she sees him work a spell. "The fires here burned are a couple of months ago. But time moves slower here, doesn't it?
[color=blue]"Yes...last time, it felt like we were here not even a day, where we had been gone a week in the 'real' world." ((I think that's right, I'm having a hard time finding it in the Land of Giants thread.))
[color=blue]"Are you saying that the fires are a couple of months old, as time passes here, or outside?" She does a quick calculation. [color=blue]"If it's two months here, that would be a little over a year. Or, if it's the other way around, then just four days outside."
"The charred remains are telling me a couple of months. I doubt that they understand time passes differently here than in other places." ((The understanding of time is correct, it was never stated explicitly, that it's a 7:1 ratio.))
Fiona swears softly in Gaelic and starts to cry, as she realizes that the "attack" must have happened shortly after they had returned to the mortal realm to better prepare themselves.
[color=blue]"So, too long ago to pick up a good trail, then? Unless you're an expert tracker."
Assuming he's not, Fiona is going to suggest that they go back and get that German woodsman that came with Silviatos, see if he's as good as some make him out to be. (Hopefully, only a day or so has passed on the Outside, to where Fiona can fetch Wilhelm without disrupting things too badly.)
((He's not unavailable, unless you want him to be.))
Before Fiona departs, "This fire is...natural. It wasn't created by magic, as best I can tell. And it appears to have been deliberately set."
[color=blue]"By the giants, do you think? I don't remember any sign of them having any magic, aside from them saying that they had been sent to get the human."
She will pop over to the Real World and track down Wilhelm, telling him that the person they were going to see is missing, that someone set a fire at the Blacksmith's door, and that they would like his help tracking down, not only the Blacksmith but the people who set fire to his place.
Hopefully that shouldn't take too long, and she will return with Wilhelm quickly.
"It is extremely difficult to determine even elementary facts about the fire, as if there was magic cast or worked in such a way to occlude Intellego magics, so I can't say who set it, although the sense of magic is strong here in the ashes."
When Wilhelm and Fiona return Marcus is no where to be found in the burned residence. None of the grogs they took with him know what happened, he just disappeared.
[strike]((I thought he said the fire wasn't magical, that it was naturally set.))[/strike] (nevermind 
)
((Also...we have Generic Shield Grog for Marcus and Generic Shield Grog for Fiona, right? Unless someone wants to run them, or run Ivor?))
Fiona double-checks to make sure nobody heard, saw, smelt, felt anything when Marcus disappeared, and see how long ago it was.
((Read it again... the fire was't magical, but there was magic worked to mask certain things.))
((whoops. fixed.))
"He just disappeared, muttering something to himself and looking at something over in that corner." One of the grogs points where Marcus was when he disappeared. Instead of smelling the char and ash in that location the scent of roasting meat predominates.
[color=blue]"Great," Fiona mutters in Gaelic. [color=blue]"Never a Quaesitore around when ye need one."
She has a sinking feeling that she knows what happened. But just to be sure, she's going to try to cast an Intellego Ignem (since it's ashes) to see who or what it was. Base 2 to "sense all mundane properties of a fire." R: Voice (+2), D: Momentary, T: Individual, for a final Target Level of 4. Any overage would hopefully go to Penetration, in case there is magic involved in that one, as she suspects. She's not going to touch the ashes, or where the ashes are, if she doesn't have to. Her Casting Total is In 5 + Ig 5 + Sta 3 + Aura 10 + die roll of 1 (followed by a die roll of 7, for a total roll of 14) = 37, halved is 19. Penetration is 3 + whatever she made the roll by.
If that doesn't work, she will try Intellego Corpus. Base is 5 ("Learn a specific piece of information about a body), R/D/T as above, for a final target level of 15. Her Casting Total is In 5 + Co 14 + Sta 3 + Aura 10 + die roll of 0...oh, fudge. Eleven botch dice? Holy mother of mercy! Four...FOUR botches!
Four Warping Points, which luckily does not increase her Warping Score (of 2). She will try to avoid Twilight. Sta 3 + Concentration 3 + Vim Form Bonus 2 + die roll of 8 = 16, vs. Warping Points Gained 4 + Enigmatic Wisdom (hah!) 0 + local aura 10 + die roll of 1 (followed by a die roll of 2, for a dice total of 4) = 18. So close!
Let's see. Comprehending Twilight. Int 1 + Enigmatic Wisdom 0 + die roll of 2 = 3, vs. Warping Score 2 + die roll of 0 (5 Botch Dice show no botch!) = 2.
So, Fiona made her Comprehend Twilight Roll (somehow), and her Int + stress die vs. Warping Score + stress die is 3 vs. 2, so Fiona beat it by 1. With a Warping Score of 2, her Base Time in Twilight is "Two Hours," but is moved down to "Diameter (2 minutes)" by the Comprehend Twilight roll.
And she gains 3 more Warping Points, in addition to whatever Twilight mark she gets.
Woohoo! My first Twilight! (maybe, hopefully)