((the Soak total of the armour with Hardness of Adamantine is +11))
Alexei calls from outside the chamber as she is dressing. "I often follow it with a casting of Doublet of Impenetrable Silk (+3 Soak) and can further add to it with Gift of the Bear's Fortitude. That won't do you much good of course as it is a personal spell. But between the armour and doublet, you should be well protected and only slightly hampered. If the armour is too uncomfortable m'lady at least let me cast the Doublet upon your clothes, should you not know the spell of course."
She looks a little shifty as she dissembles. "Ah yes, well, I can't quite see the point of Muto. It strikes me as a singularly useless Art," she declares. "I will try wearing this armour. It does fit rather nicely, after all. Even if it is quite unseemly for a woman to be dressed as such. But-- as they say, Safety First!"
[spells cast on Warrior Grogs:
Hardness of Adamantine, Hauberk of Supreme Lightness, Doublet of Impenetrabe Silk
Spells cast on servant Grogs: Doublet of Impenetrabe Silk
Spells cast on Latitia (if allowed): Silvery Scales of the Knight, Hardness of Adamantine, Hauberk of Supreme Lightness, Doublet of Impenetrable Silk
Spells cast on Alexei: Silvery Scales of the Knight, Hardness of Adamantine, Hauberk of Supreme Lightness, Doublet of Impenetrabe Silk, Gift of the Bear's Fortitude]
Alexei took his time at the outset of the journey to heavily fortify the gear of all those who were attending. No doubt Latitia's remark that Fieltarn likely met with danger increased his caution.
((For Latitia's reference, all the spells he casts are without gestures or words, in fact it seems that he mainly makes a show of personally inspecting their gear and at some point a pleasant smell that varies from person to person emanates, and strangely all the recipients seem to be in a better mood afterwards, as if there was some pleasant side affect to his magic))
Once at the temple he turned to one of the two Grogs that Michelle had brought. "You shall stay here, guard the luggage and the servants. At the first sign of trouble call out to us. Arm the servants, I brought some extra spears. Caution and prudence are more important than bravado right now, understood? Servants, do what you can to to prepare camp, but do not stray from the guard's sight, and light no fire yet. We may be sleeping outside or in, depending on what we find."
Alexei goes to the cart and pulls out a magnificent shield, embossed with arcane symbols and is expertly crafted. He walks to Latitia's shield grog. "If you wish you may use this to protect your mistress, it is an excellent shield, crafted by a Verditian smith. It will not fail you." ((This is a shield enhanced by the Verditian Mystery, it adds an additional +5 to Defense)) "I will not presume to command you nor ask you away from your charge, but I may cast further spells on you to protect her better or to enhance your skills. Do not be surprised by this, I'm sure you have some experience with magic in the field, yes?"
From the cart Alexei also pulls a pair of equally magnificent sword and hands one to the deformed Brionne who dutifully and reverently swaps it with his own, giving his sword to one of the servants. Alexei and Brionne exchange a brief nod; they have campaigned together so long nothing else needs to be said. ((the sword adds +4 to attack scores against men or animals)). He gives the other sword to his sergeant Michelle la Rouge, who adds it to his belt. Finally he makes one more trip to the cart and takes out a small but elegantly crafted leather pouch. It's been treated with oils to keep its contents dry and is decorated with entwined snakes. He brings this to Latitia.
"The same Verditius wove these bandages, even if you have no skill in chirurgy, just wrapping them on a wound will be helpful. If you would hold these m'lady and keep them safe until needed." ((bandages add +4 to any recovery roll)) he says, his fingers brushing her hands as he gives her the pouch.
"Now then!" he adds as he addresses the group. "Keep your eye peeled, cry out if you see danger. M'Lady, if we can avoid crossing a regio, let us do that until we are well prepared." he says as he takes a spear head from a pouch at his belt. He brings it to the end of his staff and there is a slight ping of wood striking metal, when he lets go of the spearhead it is afixed firmly to his staff. "Michelle, find a suitable entrance to the temple."
[Gear in cart:
Winter clothes and bedrolls, several days of food, dry firewood and tinder and flint, extra weapons (6 shortspears), 6 wooden shields 3 shortbows and 2 score arrow), lanterns and oil (3 lanterns), rope (20 yards)
I was going to bring some iron spikes, a silver mirror and a 10 foot pole, but I figure Alexei can conjure those if necessary ]
Wilhelm is going to dress warmly, in the manner of a man who will be spending a week in the woods in the dead of winter. He has a bedroll and something to make a makeshift tent or lean-to with, as well as a handful of snares to set for catching rabbits or other small game for the week that he expects to be waiting for the magi. His unstrung bow and fully-stocked quiver are slung across his back as well.
Does Wilhelm count as a "Warrior Grog"?
As the...expedition gathers at the covenant, Wilhelm looks more and more surprised. He had expected a handful of people, at most (the two magi and their shield grogs, with maybe a couple more soldier-types, as well)...not this...parade. He will finally just shake his head silently.
[color=green]"Do you want me to go ahead to be sure the trail is clear, or....?" he asks the magi.
((To be honest, I'm not even sure who Wilhelm is, I couldn't find him in the Grogs thread, I'm going to be very embarassed to find out he's a custo or something . Simply put, if he wears metal armour, Alexei will offer to lighten it to 2 load for a full suit or 1 load for a half suit, and enhance the soak of it by +2, if he's wearing no armour and wants some, Alexei will offer a suit of full chain that lasts until sunset with a soak of +11 and Load of 2. Either way he'll get a +3 soak from Alexei casting the Doublet on him.
As for numbers, I had it figured like this: Alexei, Latitia, Michelle, Brionne, a shield grog for Latitia (I thought Whilhelm might have been her shield grog), two more warrior grogs, 3 or 4 servants and a handcart (so about 10 people). Wilhelm can be the expert. Alexei is generous, if Wilhelm or any servants ask for armour he'll provide it. Feel free to have Wilhelm grab a spear and shield and/or bow.))
Alexei purses his lips as he regards Wilhelm, trying to remember if he's travelled or worked with the man before. Looking at his clothes and manner Wilhelms seems to be a bit of an outdoorsman. "Yes." he agrees with a nod. "You're armed then?" he gestures to the weapons brought in the cart (Brionne's sword is there now as well). "Don't go too far ahead if you please and signal us of any danger."
He normally wears Heavy Leather Armor. But if he's offered chain mail that's lighter than what he's wearing now, he will accept...especially if it's the same kind that Alexei's already created for Laetitia and Wilhelm, with the maga's permission, checks it out to be sure it's not too clunky or clanky.
He will remove his leather armor (which I'm assuming is his top layer) and put the chain mail on over his clothes, placing his own armour in the cart.
Wilhelm reaches up to touch his bow with one hand and places his other on his knife. [color=green]"I am armed enough, magus," he says. (As an aside, once he realizes that Alexei is speaking with a German accent, he will speak in his native German as well – he speaks no Latin, and his French is a meager 2).
He will travel about 50 to 100 paces ahead of the main party, keeping his eyes and ears open for anything out of the ordinary. Visual spot check: Per 2 + Awareness (in the forest) 4 + Keen Vision 3 + Ways of the Forest bonus 3 + die roll of 1 (followed by die roll of 10, for 20) = 32. (Hey, that ant has acne!). Hearing spot check: Per 2 + Awareness (in the forest) 4 + Sharp Ears 3 + Ways of the Forest bonus 3 + die roll of 0 (not a botch, though) = 12.
As I indicated earlier, travel to the Ruin was pretty easy. It's just across the river from Autun, so it's pretty civilized, with the previous exception of the spectral wolves. Close visual inspection of the temple and environs doesn't reveal anything out of the ordinary.
Laetitia's second sight sees something that looks like a tent flap, closed up.
"Seems like the entrance is here," she points out. She motions for Glaukopis to land on her shoulder, and then she lifts the flap with one hand, and extends her other out behind her to lead everyone in. "Everyone please hold on to each others' hands until we are through the boundary."
[color=green]"I will wait here for your return," Wilhelm says as he starts to unload his things and prepares to set up camp. Unless he's able to squat in one of the cabins that I suddenly seem to remember being here in sight of the old temple.
Alexei takes a look at the space Latitia is working on and scans the surrounding area. "Brionne, poke around, see if you can sniff out any spells or active magic. Michelle, there's a door somewhere keep aware of it and be ready." Both grogs nod and get to work, familiar with the situation. Michelle directs the two grogs that are new to get into position. One by the servants and luggage and one near Latitia who is by a doorway only she can see.
No. Page 189 says if you can see into the regio. The boundary appears to be closed. The Discerning Eye was cast forcelessly and doesn't penetrate the boundary (if you want to try and penetrate, do the roll and lay out the Casting Total). There doesn't appear to be any effect here that the Faded Sigil can identify.
There are sufficient clues within the thread to figure this out; you can feel free to read through the thread if you haven't already, since Willhelm detailed items to you.
The Discerning Eye is for detecting illusions. Illusions, unless cast upon a being with MR, do not have any innate resistance, so Discerning Eye doesn't need to penetrate. I was looking for whether or not the thing she thought she saw with Second Sight was illusory. In which case she'd be able to discern any illusion up to 5th magnitude. That is also what the Faded Sigil was for, as confirmation.
I have no idea what Wilhelm would have told Laetitia, and reading back through the thread it's not really clear how much he saw of what went on. Just because as a player I have a pretty good metagame idea of how the regio needs to be entered, doesn't mean I have any reason to believe Laetitia has any such ideas.
A being, a thing. I'm posting in spare bits of time while pulling out flooring and demoing a partition wall between our kitchen and dining room. Since InvisibleCastle is up, doing rolls isn't hard, and you can give me a proper total for me to tell you more information. I need players to do more work, not less for the forseeable future.
You should have an idea, I'll leave it up to Peregrine as to what he saw and what he related, then. Again, on the principle of having the players do some of the work themselves. I had asked for volunteers to run this story out, didn't receive any, so everyone involved has to step up.
Ah. Reading back, it seems I said that he will tell the magi what he saw happen that night, but didn't actually. So, either while they're preparing for the trip or when they arrive at the Temple (which is about a five or six hour walk):
[color=green]"The magus Fieltarn asked us to accompany him as he looked into reports of wolf attacks on the residents here. We arrived at the cottage of Vincent, and I could hear wolves gathering in the distance. The magus said that there were other wolves closer. Spirit wolves, that were hunting for a boar that Fieltarn had already killed. Fieltarn said that he would try to get the wolves to accept his sacrifice in exchange for our safety. The wolves appeared around Helmut, who barely made it into the cottage. I was able to kill one of the wolves that was attacking him.
"Fieltarn threw some tusks in front of one of the wolves, who..consumed them, somehow. The magus then told us that the situation had been resolved, asked us to make sure that Helmut and Vincent's family was safe, and said that he would follow the wolves, warning us not to loose any more arrows. He then told me, specifically, not to leave the cottage until dawn.
"He had us leave a bundle of his clothes by...that post there," he continues, gesturing to the post that Fieltarn had specified.
[color=green]"I went into the cottage with the others, and sat by the window to watch. After a long while, Fieltarn turned into a wolf, and ran with the others into the ruins. We waited the better part of the next day, but he did not return, so we returned to Mons Electi. I have kept watch for him for several days before I decided that you should know."
((edit - replaced "Fieltarn threw some bone in front of one of the wolves, who ate them" with something closer to what Wilhelm saw, per PM from JL))
Laetitia prefers to cast that particular spell forcelessly so that areas of MR stand out. Unless I specify otherwise (in which case I'd give a penetration total) she always casts it forcelessly.
]
. Simply put, if he wears metal armour, Alexei will offer to lighten it to 2 load for a full suit or 1 load for a half suit, and enhance the soak of it by +2, if he's wearing no armour and wants some, Alexei will offer a suit of full chain that lasts until sunset with a soak of +11 and Load of 2. Either way he'll get a +3 soak from Alexei casting the Doublet on him.