((It's your plan, by and large Marcus was along to ensure that Fiona and Laetitia could survive, he's the big gun you point at stuff, and will advise on matters of tactics, but as far as the overall operational objectives, those are Fiona's. It's tough playing this fine line...but I figure Marcus just loves to do this kind of stuff, and doesn't often get a chance to do it.))
Okay, Fiona will go to each of the wooden doors and spont a non-Fatiguing MuHe to cause it to, basically, swell up and jam completely shut. Looks like base 1, R: Touch (+1), D: Sun (+2), T: Individual, for a target level of 4. Her MuHe CT is Sta 3 + Mu 16 + He 10 + Aura 10 = 39 ÷ 5 = 8.
Wilhelm will then listen at the iron door: Per 2 + Awareness 3 + Sharp Ears 3 – Anchored to the Forest 3 + die roll of 5 = 10.
If he doesn't hear anything, then she will spont Prying Eyes (InIm 5), with a CT of Sta 3 + In 5 + Im 5 + Aura 10 = 23 ÷ 5 = 4.6, rounding to 5.
Nothing is noticed from the other side. Prying eyes shows stairs descending into the darkness.
"My thanks, Master Marcus," Falko says, grinning at his suddenly unblemished arm. The thought of being cured magically when they return home (not the first time that's happened, he recalls) makes him realize that nobody is going to believe he faced down two giants by himself and got the better of them, which tempers his mood a bit.
Fiona steps back from the door, then thumps herself in the head. [color=blue]"I'm an idiot!" she says in Gaelic.
[color=blue]"There are stairs going down on the other side of the door, but it looks pretty dark down there. And I just remembered that I know a spell that allows us to see in the dark...Eyes of the Cat, it's called. I can cast it on each of us. And on you, Marcus. I know it well enough that I can get past about seven magnitudes of resistance. Don't know if you want it, or would need to suppress your Parma for it, but everyone else is getting it." ((her penetration is 32, before the die roll on the casting.))
[color=blue]"Marcus, I might be able to destroy the latch on the door with a spontaneous spell. How about you?"
Falko gets a point of Warping, I forgot to add that.
"I can suppress my Parma Magica for the spell."
"Are you thinking of The Key of Theodorus?", I can manage it with just a bit of effort, but why exert myself when I can just take the guard's key?" he reaches down on one of the burnt out corpses and pulls off a keyring with a key on it. Once the spells are cast, he opens the door and indicates that Falko take point and he follows up behind him.
The stairs go down, and there is no guard rail on the left side and what appears to be a bottom less pit as the inky blackness seems to never end despite the spell being active on everyone. The stairwell is not large enough for giants to go down comfortably two in a row formation.
Fiona chuckles nervously. [color=blue]"Like I said...I'm an idiot," she says with a smile.
I guess the same marching order as before, then? Front to back, Jehanne < Wilhelm << Glaukopis < Fiona < Marcus << Falko.
When everyone gets down to the bottom they see two men lying in bed, but secured in chains. Both have staggeringly long beards and appear to be asleep right now. They appear to be inside a room that doesn't have a door.
((Are these giant men or normal sized men?))
Normal sized men.
[color=blue]"That's odd," Fiona mutters. [color=blue]"Who are they, and what are they doing here?"
[color=blue]"How good are you at detecting lingering magic?" she asks Marcus. If he says he's not very good, then she is going to try a spontaneous Intellego Vim to sense any active or lingering magic. She's going to go for the highest Base she can get with Touch range (+1), D: Momentary, and T: Room (+2). Her CT is Sta 3 + In 5 + Vi 6 + Aura 10 + die roll of 6 = 30, halved is 15, which looks like a base 4, and the room turns white for a second.
If she doesn't sense any magic on them, she will cast Sight of the True Form on each of them (level 15, her CT is +23 before aura).
If they are both what they seem, she will then cast Revealed Flaws of the Mortal Flesh on each of them. CT is +23, vs. a spell level of 10.
For anyone watching, when she casts the spells on them, their hair turns white for a moment.
"I'm rather good actually," but he says it after he's been lost in thought, and Fiona took his silence as not being very good. Fiona's spell doesn't show any magic, but then again, the room doesn't turn white, either. When Marcus notices that, he says, "That's odd." He then incants for Sight of the Active Magics. "There's a Perdo Vim effect beginning at the room. There is also an extremely powerful Reco Corpus effect, and it appears to be in a circle spell."
((Reco = Rego or Creo? I'm guessing Creo, makes more sense.))
Fiona looks around for a circle inscribed or drawn on the floor.
[color=blue]"Can you tell how powerful the Perdo Vim effect is? Does it affect active magics, or only dampen new spells?"
((Rego))
"Well, the Rego Corpus effect has to be more powerful than the Perdo Vim effect. All I can say is both are strong but the Corpus effect is stronger. I'd say it's an inverse ward, keeping them inside. And the Perdo Vim effect? I don't know. Maybe we should talk to them?" The discussion has caused the men to stir.
[color=blue]"Chains and a Rego Corpus effect? They must want these people to stay put in the worst way."
[color=blue]"Good morning, lads. How are you feeling, and how did ye happen to find yerselves here? Oh, and introductions might be in order, too."
As she speaks, Wilhelm moves over to the door and keeps an eye up the stairs.
Language?
Let's start with Latin. If that doesn't work, French.
"Latin speaking giants. That's a new one on me. How did one of you manage to learn a civilized tongue? And which of you is going to punch me around this time?" He spies Marcus and seems to change his tune. "Wherever you came from, you're going to regret being here. I'm sorry for what youre about to experience." He repeats it in French, and also in the Celtic language commonly heard.
Marucs seems a bit too stunned to respond.
Especially after the repetition in French, Jehanne's knuckles whiten on his mace handle, and he raises his shield and stands protectively near Fiona. Falko is a little less sure of the exact message ((Latin 3 is his best match)) and looks to Marcus for an indication of how to react.