1221: One Thread Fits All

And the direction the horde is coming from?

The oracular d4 says "East."

Consider it spent...after all, she has just now gotten back on the path to redemption, both for herself and hopefully Adorjan (if that's possible), she would hate to think that the Lord would call her to judgement so soon.

Also, the Caltrop Oracle places the well and cottage west of your camp, if it matters.

Sure. Sophronia will run towards the cottage this round, next round she should be close enough to spontaneously cast, spontaneously, Wizard's Leap to the top of the cottage.
CT of Rego 10+3 +Corpus 5 +Int 2 +Aura + Die roll= 20 +aura +die, and then divide by two. Requisites of Herbam and Animal are 5, no metal or stone on her person. Wizard's Leap is a 15th level spell.

Oh hell, arithmetic.

So, Wizard's Leap has a range of 50 paces, or 150 feet, which means you're trying to run 50 feet in one round (6 seconds). That seems pretty fast--
(50/6)*(3600/5280)=5.7mph. That seems pretty fast to me-- especially for someone with 0 Athletics, -3 Str and -2 Qik.

Cannot find any EFs for Athletics checks, so in lieu of any other guidelines I'll use Mark Lawford's.

Sophronia takes off as fast as she can, and moves (18-2)*3 feet before attempting to Leap onto the top of the cottage. She rolls a 5 for a CT of 27, which is barely enough to cast the spell if she spends a Confidence point. Even if she does, however, she cannot quite make it as far as she intends, and finds herself about a pace short of the cottage's roof, where she tumbles to the ground. (She would not know that she's barely out of range until after she casts the spell; I leave it up to you to spend the Confidence and end up on the ground outside the cottage, or keep the Confidence and be 1/4 of the way from your camp and the cottage.)

Initiatives:

Horde: 11
Cygna and Corvus: 9
?: 6
Desiderius: 3
Sophronia: 2
Attravere: 1
Phessalia: 0 (not a botch)

(Cygna and Corvus both rolled 8s and both have +1 Qik; PC-tag will break a tie, in case it matters.)

I'll concede the athletics and quickness, but I'm 265 lbs and can get to 7 or 8 jog mph regularly. My fast walking speed approaches 4.8 mph on my treadmill. Some of that is stride, granted.

If she's running away from the horde, she'd run to a point where she could reasonably estimate that she's close enough, and err on the side of getting closer to the cottage, since that is immediately opposite of the horde.

7.5mph would be an 8 minute mile... I'm guessing you're also considerably taller than Sophronia, and have non-negative Strength and Quickness :slight_smile: I'm around Sophronia's age, a couple inches shorter than her, and in much better physical condition than she is-- I could not reliably dash 50' in 6sec. I do have a very short stride (it says a lot that my rowing speed is much faster than my running speed), and I would put myself at a 0 or +1 Qik. (I'd prefer having Athletics EFs for distances, but I didn't want to come up with those on the fly, since it would require a lot of time and number crunching.)

Mark Sophronia down one Confidence point for the Wizard's Leap, and she finds herself in the soft loam outside the cottage.

Wait a minute, you said it was up to me? Now it isn't?

The entire idea behind Confidence points is to enable someone to do something that they are just capable of doing and it advances the story in a meaningful way. Additionally, it is up to the player to decide whether to spend the confidence point after the putative result is known. I am not spending a confidence point. The spell fails and I'm running closer to the cottage.

After a glance to see that his companions are all aware of what is going on, Attravere starts to ask "Can everyone take care of themselves?", but stops somewhere near the start as they've already begun taking action.

He'll trace a ring around himself using his traveling cane (likely 8 to 10-ft diameter) under where Cygna started rising and cast as strong a Ward Against Faeries as he can muster (CT-(26+Aura6+Stress)/2). Then ReCo himself onto the roof of the stone cottage.

I misinterpreted what you were saying. I thought you wanted to get closer to the cottage regardless whether or not she gets on top of it.

The Confidence point DOES allow her to do something she otherwise couldn't-- cast the spell, and thus move yourself 150 paces. It does not compensate for the fact that you can't gauge distances that accurately to tell if the cottage is within 150' (which is super metagamey).

Just to be clear, opting to be 100' away from anyone or anything else, in the path of a stampeding horde of ravening creatures, is a pretty Bad Idea. We are talking about the difference between getting trampled by the entire horde and having no option to Leap away (you have to be able to see where you're going), or being at the base of the cottage and having not only fewer things trampling her (a stampede of cows will run right over a cliff, but they do navigate around smaller obstacles to some extent) but the ability to touch the cottage and possibly make it on top or within, after only one round of sustaining injuries.

Note that casting a spell (even a failed one) precludes running in that second round.

If you still want to keep the Confidence point, yes, it's your perogative, but Sophronia will sustain massive injuries. If it was a grog, it would be fatal.

Reminder: aura is not 6 until after sunrise, and we are still before dawn.

We'll call it 9' in diameter. Aura is still at 2, and you roll a 6 for a total of 17. Per house rules on wards and penetration, this wards off faeries of Might 9 or less.

Cygna does not start rising until the second round (it takes the entirety of the first round to cast the spell) so she's only about 8' off the ground by the time Attravere is ready to bamf off. You do have the option to reach up and touch her ankle if you want to Company March instead of 7LS (which warps her, but not you).

On her turn, Cygna will look around for a safe place to float to and, if possible, start to drift in that direction.

If there's not anyplace safe, she will pretty much stay where she is, kick herself for donating her Wand of BoAF to the covenant, and pray that it doesn't mean anybody's death.

(edit for crossposting) Does it look like Attravere's Faerie Warding Circle is having any effect on the little buggerers?

You won't know if it works until they reach it (and you). Cygna does make the MT+Int check as Attravere casts, though, and does recognize it as a Ward vs Fae.

Would she suppress her Parma if Attravere grabs her ankle? (She does know he can cast a group Leap of Homecoming, as that's how he got Cygna, Hiems and Company from iberia.)

Such was his original intent, if the maga didn't have other means of keeping safe. "Rooftop, but warping." Attravere will offer. Allow her a few moments to reply and then transport him/them there, her decision.

Attravere will trust that Sanno is able to take care of himself... but if all is not well there then he'll adjust accordingly.

I forgot Sanno!

The otter shouts an obscenity and turns himself into a huge pelican, then takes off into the sky.

I'm guessing that her Infernal Lore held no clue for her as to what these things are?

Cygna will take a quick look around to be sure that everyone else is safe(ish), then nod. [color=red]"Let's go."

I don't know what you're saying. If Sophronia reasonably knows of a path to safety, she'd take it. I figured, IMO, reasonably the path to safety would be to the top of the cottage. I also believed that she could reasonably estimate the distance. Humans, as a rule are pretty good judges of distance. Volume, not so much. You tell me what she can do. It was my mistake for forgetting the aura wasn't 6, yet. It is reasonable to take some lumps for that. Everything else, is, IMO metagamey on your side.
Someone running for their life, sprinting for their life should be able to get going quite quickly. IF she's safely away, and close to the cottage without risk of being trampled on round 3 by spending the Confidence Point, fine, we'll go that way, and she'll lift herself up much like Cygna did.